A certain luminescent light
by Asdor2000
Summary: A light can take on many forms as well as have many meanings; Sometimes it can be a beacon of hope, of guidance. At other times a blighting power,burning away everything impure it comes into contact with. But take heed: Every light is bound to cast shadows. Shadows that can swallow you until everything, your existence and anything it stands for, falls into oblivion. (New Summary!)
1. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! I decided to make a rewrite of this chapter, namely the first one. Why I even write this? I have no idea besides that I thought it would be time to start this whole 'rewrite the first chapters'-thing that also is on my to-do list. So without further ado let's start this adventure; A adventure that will maybe, just maybe sway you with it(Hope it will, to say the truth).**

**Enjoy!**

**Nothing of 'to aru majutsu no index' belongs to me, only my ocs! **

* * *

_Chapter 1: And it begins anew_

Academy city, the city of science, with a population of roughly 2,3 million residents, 80% being students, is located directly west to Tokyo. It is commonly said that the technology is 20 to 30 years ahead. But that isn't the main reason this city is so well known. It is known for the residents of this city, namely scientific produced espers. The procedure is called Power Curriculum and unlocked the esper abilities through drugs and other stimulants. They are making up ca. 40% of the populations. Well, the ones were the Curriculum worked better and who have gained some kind of power. The espers are organized through their individual outputs in levels ranging from 0 to 5. 0 means no power while level5's are one man armies. Around 60% of the residents are Level0s who can't or haven't gained an ability yet. Officially only seven individuals have reached level5 so far.

* * *

It was a typical morning for Kamijou Touma.

One would wonder why this specific sentence got repeated every single time. One could even bet that most stories had this sentence in them at least once. It is indeed a wonderful phrase, if not a little overused, mostly followed by the explanations of why exactly it was so typical, a 'in general'-like kind of description that applied to almost everyone: Getting up at 7am, make yourself ready, eating a healthy breakfast and then adios home and hello work or school. And If you are waking up later than 7am because you don't need to be up at an earlier time, you are a lucky one.

So now you would most likely ask yourself: 'What is here different then in the rest of the stories?' It all could be broken down to two single words: Kamijou Touma. Yes, you would say it is a name if you would be a smartass. But that is not the point; The point is, that these two words completely blighted this whole concept.

Kamijou Touma would have what most people called a stray of misfortune, a big one that lasted and will last for a lifetime. And even people here in academy city would say it which, considering the people living here didn't believe in luck but in statistics and probabilities, said a lot about his daily life.

Kamijou Touma woke up this morning in his bathtub. Again.

Why he was sleeping there would be something most people would ask themselves. It was definitely not 'normal' to sleep in one's bathtub. And another thing that is sad about the whole situation was that this wasn't the first night.

He was sleeping in this out of ceramic made tub because his bed got preoccupied by a freeloader since a certain eventful day. This freeloader was by all means a big, big, almost huge strain on Touma. An additional trouble magnet. Take that plus his regular misfortune and you would get what? Exactly, a good sized problem.

Then he was woken up.

It wasn't the pleasant wakeup call like the smell of a already made and delicious breakfast. Nor was it the sweet voice of a beautiful girl  
or the wonderful singing of a bird.

No, it was a stream of ice cold water caused by a malfunctioning water tap. The sudden shock coming from the under zero degrees cold water hitting his face made him jolting up. But it didn't end here: The water made the already smooth and slightly slippery bathtub even more slippery, causing him to trip. The following fall had an unpleasant, you could even say unfortunate, end: Touma landed face first on the floor.

The morning drama or comedy, depending on your point of view, didn't end here: When he finally collected the will to stand up and face the day, Touma opened the bathroom door and walked out of the bathroom into the dorm room. It turned out to be a big, big mistake: The very moment he opened the door and walked through it, Index was in the middle of changing and currently half-naked. Touma got like that a got view on the half currently uncovered.

Time seems to froze while both looked at each other, Touma panicking and Index becoming redder and redder by the seconds. Normally He would make a victory dance in such a situation like most teenage boys if not for one little but significant detail.

"Tou~ma...", Index said while baring her teeth, showing her canines and moving closer."Why does this always happen?"

Yes, this little nun was the epitome of weaponized teeth and jaw. Something so dangerous, so hazardous, that, if a person would tell him that these teeth could, and would, penetrate the armor of a tank, Touma would believe it on the spot.

"I-Index, calm down. T-This was not this Kamijou's fault, it was an accident. S-So calm down so we can talk about it and stop baring your teeth and making yourself ready to attack this unfortunate Kamijou Touma and let's Talk about AAAARRRGGGHHH... ", Touma screamed and tried to get the now in his head biting Index of him.

As if his head was stuck in a compactor his top got crushed mercilessly by the little girl who normally looked and acted like she could never hurt a fly. Needless to say, Touma was damaged by this attack: At least half of his life was pressed out of him and he could swear the teeth drew blood.

He said the only Thing he could say in this situation:

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

After clearing the misunderstanding, which proved to be as hard as explaining the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to a group of elementary grade schoolers who were all hyperactive and busy throwing their lunch at you as well as the growling of Index' stomach sounding like a very big feline like a tiger or lion letting out an mighty growl wich was the reason for her to stop breaking his head with her jaw, Touma finally, finally was able to start making breakfast.

"Touma, Touma, I want ham with eggs and bacon", Index said pleadingly while bothering Touma in the kitchen. And with bothering was meant that she was poking him with her index finger in the side.

"First take a look in the fridge before you make any kind of demand.", Touma answered, opening the fridge and looking for the ingredients. The answer he got was not the one he had hoped or wished for.

'Such misfortune', Touma thought, taking his bad luck with such an ease only one who had suffered only misfortune over his entire life could. It was not a ability to be proud of.

The truth he saw was that, apparently, a blackout last night made the contents of the fridge sour. Again. It was the third time this month.

"See, Index, the ingredients are sour so I can't do much. We can actually do nothing. Now don't attack this unfortunate Touma again, I WILL buy new ingredients later.", he said which he did with such a conviction born out of his will to survive that even a war veteran would have tipped his hat. Unfortunately it didn't please Index but her stomach got the better of her quickly.

In the end they needed to eat a boring and simple breakfast consisting of only toast and water out of the tap.

But even though it was a poor man's meal and a product of Touma's misfortune, he wasn't unhappy; After all, the toast didn't get burned up by and electrical malfunction, nor some kind of insect has laid eggs in it what would have made the toast uneatable.

But nonetheless Index happily devoured the meal. Like it was a five star feast in the highest, top-class restaurant in Academy City she ate it with a thousand watt smile on her face.

For Index, it was heaven.

For Touma... it was war.

A war, with a opponent like Index, made World war III look like a peace conference, where Touma fought for the very foundation of something that would be needed to get through the day: food.

He needed to battle the whirlwind which was Index for every inch of bread, no matter the cost. The necessity to sustain his body brought out of Touma a power no one, not even himself, would have thought to be possible. But even though it was his best, the maximum he could bring out, Touma could do nothing but surrender to the glutton in front of him called Index.

The black hole which was her stomach sucked up all the food she got her hands on, while Index's hands moved at speeds which should be impossible for human beings.

One moment the piece of toast Touma had fought hard to achieve and paid with much sweat and blood and held in his cramped hand, the next it got stolen, literally ripped out of it by the nun and swallowed with 3 others almost instantaneously until only one remained.

The last piece of toast; The moment of truth had come. Will it become one with Touma's stomach and supply his by now almost drained energy? Or will it get ravaged by the monster in the disguise of a nun?

Two pairs of eyes narrowed at each other; Silence waved over the battlefield whilst the opponents eyed each other, searching for weaknesses. Nobody moved.

"Maika-chan!", the shout and following sounds of things crashing onto the ground were what broke the silence. Under normal circumstances Touma would have immediately intervened in the happenings happening in the neighbors' dorm room, in Tsuchimikado's dorm room, to stop the sis-con sergeant from making such a ruckus in the morning.

But right now, in this moment, Kamijou Touma, also named 'Imagine Breaker', was about to fight the fight of his live.

And with this interruption, the two candidates sprang into action.

Touma feinted left but the experienced Index didn't took it; Instead she went for the head-on approach. Her left hand zeroed in on the innocent slice of ham, making itself ready to drag the piece of bread into the pits of oblivion.

Deciding it was time to start an direct attack, too, Touma's right hand and the reason for his moniker shoot forward to break Index's illusion in which she gets the last of the pieces.

Sadly, this illusion was not an illusion bit the future; Even though Touma's hand was faster as if an miracle itself has accelerated it, it was not enough.

Holding onto the last slice of toast in his hand as if Touma's life depended on it, Index decided that opening it would take too much effort; So she simply pulled the piece of toast towards her mouth and let the teeth of justice drop onto it.

With Touma's hand in-between!

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH...", he screamed in response to this bloodthirsty action of hers whilst shaking his hand, that was suffering from unimaginable pain, together with Index who was still attached to Kamijou's hand.

But even though an outcry of pain is used in nature to signal said pain to others, here it was to no veil: Index was still, despite Touma's totally manly cries of pain, munching on the combination of ham and hand.

Futilely trying to get Index stop munching on his hand Touma looked on the clock. And what he saw there was not something he wanted to see; Reality came crushing down like an ambos, causing him to forget the pain, forget his empty stomach and instead making an shout filled with despair.

"AH, I'M LATE."

Prying Index off which was only possible now because there was no toast left and without the toast no reason to bite into it, Touma sprinted towards the door, taking his school bag which he had readied yesterday mid-sprint with him.

Yelling "I'm off, see you later", he disappeared through the door, letting a little dumbfounded Index behind. Luckily for Touma sphinx, the freeloader cat he had in his dorm room, decided now was the perfect moment to wake up. Luckily because the cat was the only reason this morning that hindered Index from rushing after him.

* * *

A person standing on a roof was watching Touma as he sprinted towards school. The only thing one could say for sure was that this person was young; To say if the person was a boy or a girl was not possible at this moment.

Also, this person was not simply standing on the roof and watching Touma taking part in his from misfortune branded life, no: The person was currently standing there on the roof and was talking to someone through a phone which was in his left hand and pressed against his left ear.

"I have located him. He is on his way to school.", The person informed whoever he was talking to and was watching how Touma was suddenly getting chased by a group of delinquents and shouting "SUCH MISFORTUNE!".

The person chuckled at the sight and proceeded with the observation.

"Are you sure he is it? We can't allow ourselves errors in this matter. ", said the one on the phone with a somewhat serious but playful tone in the voice. The only thing that can be said about the person on the other side of the line was that the person was in fact a she, a young girl to be precise.

"Pretty sure. Around 16, black, spiky hair, and, most of all, chased by misfortune".

You could hear a slight chuckle over the phone.

"Describe it to me."

"Well, for starters, after he got out of his dorm he got showered by a crossing car driving through a puddle while running along the street. Then he got chased by a middle schooler shooting electricity at him.

After their ways parted with Kamijou outrunning her, he got caught up in a robbery where he helped a girl. He tripped and landed with his face in her cleavage. That lead to believing he was a pervert and so he fled the scene, threatened by a mob of girls who wanted to 'purify' him.

Now he is currently being chased by a group of 5... no, now 8 delinquents.  
On every event that happened to him he screamed 'Such misfortune."

Through the whole explanation the chuckling of the person on the other end erupted into a whole heartily, cackling laughter. After a few minutes the laughter changed into a slight giggle.

"Ok, thanks. You made my day with that! Proceed with your work."

"Roger that.", the person said with a smirk and ended the call. Sticking his handy back into his pocket he moved on to the next roof, having lost sight on Touma whilst he was talking.

'So, Touma, this whole job should get very interesting.', was the thought of him while he was watching from his new position to see how the chase continued.

'Very interesting indeed.'

* * *

After Touma got finally in the classroom and sat on his chair, all he wanted was a little rest from the already exhausting events of the morning.

All his energy. That was what was taken by the events that had transpired this morning. But even though for an outsider such a series of events would seem abnormal, for Kamijou Touma it has become a routine a long time ago.

Being chased by Biri-Biri while soaked with water from a puddle was the first thing that has happened to him; Having to deal with an electromaster, or more like the electromaster, being completely drenched in water was not the best state to be in. Luckily he managed to outrun her; Touma couldn't even imagine what he would have needed to live through the situation if the outcome would have been the other one.

But even though that was most unfortunate, there was more: A banana peel which has been carelessly thrown onto the pavement has been the next starting point of another, most taxing event;

Namely tripping and landing into a random high school girl's cleavage. being held for a pervert, Touma soon needed to run for his life, away from the bigger and bigger becoming mob of angry girls who attracted more of the female gender of the same mind by shouting "Pervert!" and "Catch this enemy of womankind!".

It's not as if he has planned to trip and fall face first into a girl's bosom! Despite it not being his intention, Touma was a guy and because of that would have been most likely happy with the outcome if not for the mob promising a long and painful death running after him.

Again, he had managed to barely escape.

But even though this had been another hard checkpoint in what is called 'Touma's way to school', fate was not finished yet; after 50% of his way to school he ran into a group of delinquents he was familiar with as well as they with him; They were the ones who tried to hit on different girls on many occasions; The girls had been looking like they didn't want to have to deal with them, so Touma intervened each time.

Of course, with helping out the girls he became the object of fury for the delinquents. So they too began to chase him and continued to do so till shortly before a certain high school.

Drained. That was the state Touma was currently in, a state he couldn't do a thing about. Being completely done for he just wanted to rest and laid his head on the table when...

"Nya~, Kami-nyan, good morning. What happened to you? You look like you just got through a warzone.", a happy Tsuchimikado Motoharu greeted him. Having no strength to greet the other boy, Touma relented to grunt to acknowledge the other boy.

"Nah, I think he got again to enlarging his harem.", Aogami Pierce threw in, grinning from one ear to the next.

"Oi, Kami-nyan, you bastard. Why do you always get the girls?"

"Yeah, you can't do things like that. You need to share with the normal mortals."

That were his friends Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce.

This was the before mentioned Tsuchimikado, full name Tsuchimikado Motoharu, who was a double agent and magician-esper-hybrid who helped Kamijou out multiple times in the past. He got messy blonde hair, wears sunglasses and had a golden chain around his neck. He is also his classmate.  
By his friend and classmates he was named 'Sis-con sergeant' 'cause of his affection for his little sister Maika.

Aogami Pierce was a classmate too, but wasn't so special except his giant repertoire of fetishes including every girl one can and will see. He called himself a loli-con, but most others knew him under 'The Fetish king'. He got blue, messy hair and had his eyes almost all the time closed.

Put the three of them together and the so called 'idiot-trio' or 'delta force' was formed.

"Morning, Tsuchimikado, Aogami.", he greeted back and lazily, still exhausted from the way to school, turned his head towards his friends. A blissful blankness filled his head like warm cotton, most likely from the exhaustion he was currently suffering under. Kamijou Touma was at peace.

This state ended abruptly the moment he fully realized what his friends just said and the meaning it implied.

"I DON'T HAVE A HAREM YOU BASTARDS! ", shouted Touma in an outcry of indignation at this for him completely ridiculous statement.

"Nya~, Kami-nyan, don't try and talk yourself out of it.", Tsuchimikado said, a slightly evil intent radiating off of him. The other boy was on the completely opposite side of this conflict.

"Exactly, Kami-nyan. Be it brunet to blonde, loli to onee-san, nurse to maid, tsundere to yandere, flat to voluptuous, ojou-san to tomboy, middle schooler to university student, you get enough girls to fulfill every man's fetishes.", Aogami added with a sinister grin, slower emitting kill intent. At this comment every male in the class room began to throw angry and jealous stares in his direction while the girls blushed slightly but still scolded the three idiots.

"What do you talk about in class again?", came a question from Fukiyose Seiri who had approached the terror herd. A girl with black, long, silky hair and a big bust. She was called 'Iron wall-girl' because she seemed to be unaffected by the so-called kamijou-disease.

the other classmates began to whisper as she neared herself in order to end whatever the three idiots decided to start:

"And here comes the iron wall."

"Get her away! she won't be immune to the Kamijou-disease forever!"

"I lost my girlfriend to him..."

"Why does he always get the girls?!"

"That's so unfair!"

For everyone who didn't know about it, the Kamijou-disease was a thesis to explain why so many girls found themselves attracted to Touma. Of course he was too dense to realize this fact and hadn't had a clue why they always mentioned it.

This fact was also the only reason why nobody would find two months from now a corpse who shared scarily many similarities with one Kamijou Touma at the border of Academy City.

Jealousy really brings out the worst in a man.

'Haaaa. Such misfortune', Touma thought, but had not the necessary energy to fight for his case: Maybe later when he had energy to spend again. Instead he brought back his head where it was before, on top of his desk, resting.

But before he could escape in his dreams the door slit open and revealed their teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe. Trotting into the classroom she hummed a happy tune and even had a light hop in her step.

While she was a full grown adult who graduated from university, she looked like a elementary schooler and was only 135cm tall. She was considered to be one of the seven wonders of a certain high school and object of many discussions between Aogami and Motoharu if she was in fact a loli or not.

"Good morning", she cheerfully greeted the class. It was well-known that this eacher was the epitome of good mood and somehow served as the mascot of their class. If someone dared to make her drop tears or anything remotely close, he/she will bring the wrath of their class on him-/herself.

"Good morning, Komoe-sensei", the class replied, everyone hastily moving towards their seat to sit down. Touma, now being freed from imminent danger for his mental health, made himself comfortable and concentrated as best as he could in his state on their teacher.

And so lessons began.

* * *

**That was it for the rewrite of the first chapter. For the future plans, I have decided to rewrite the whole first arc in between writing on the next as already mentioned above. These updates won't come as 'frequently'[wrong thing to say by my track record] as the next chapters for the current arc, but they will definitely come. And yes, I changed out the ham with toast.  
**

**For those who enjoyed the old versions, rest assured: The plot and conversations won't change.**

**And with that, I'm out! Bye!**


	2. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 2

**Here is the next chapter of my story! I hope you enjoy it!**

_**Nothing of 'to aru majutsu no index' belongs to me, only my ocs!**_

_Chapter 2: A certain temperamental redhead_

For Misaka Mikoto, this morning began rather frustrating and unpleasing. She got woken up by Shirai Kuroko, her roommate and kohai, in her dorm room.

She did so, with what she claimed to be sleep walking, through groping on of Misaka's breast's and hip moaning a rather agitated and loud "AAAAAHHHHH~, ONEE-SAMA~!".

That almost instantly set Misaka off and lead to a electrified and unconscious Kuroko laying on the floor.

After the shock was overcome Misaka took a shower, dressed up and left her room with a still unconscious Kuroko on the floor to eat breakfast.

On the walk from her room to the cafeteria she got greeted by many other students with a 'Good morning, misaka-sama!' which she greeted back.

In the cafeteria she ordered herself tea, ham with jam and in addition scrambled eggs with beacon.

After she was done eating Maika, Tsuchimikado's little sister, drove to her sitting on a cleaning robot and said:"Hey, Misaka. Could you get me an shoujo manga? I have no time today and that would help me concentrate on the other tasks that are coming with being a maid."

"OK, I get you something." Misaka replied and stood up.

"Yeah, but remember: it must be something exciting. Not R-18, but still heated."

"Yeah, yeah", Misaka said and went out of the cafeteria and to school.

On her way to school she saw that idiot.

Saying loudly 'Hey!' she approached him.

He stopped, slowly turned around towards her, whirled around again the moment he saw her and took off.

She started to run too and shouted:"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING WAY THE VERY MOMENT YOU SEE ME?"

"BECAUSE THIS KAMIJOU TOUMA HAD ALREADY ENOUGH MISFORTUNE THIS MORNIG AND DOESN'T WANT TO ADD YOUR BIRI-BIRINESS TO THE MIX! "

"Stop calling me that. I have a damn name called MISAKA MIKOTO, YOU IDIOT!" she yelled and send an barrage of lighting at him, each one with enough energy to instantly transform a human being in a pile of ash.

And the reaction of Kamijou Touma was...

With a wink of his right hand the whole barrage were negated.

"STOP STOPPING THEM WITH THIS HAND OF YOURS!"

"IF I DO THAT I DIE!"

"FIGHT ME!"

"WHY ME? FOKOU-DA!"

She chased the idiot further through the streets.

But in the end she needed to let him go because their school ways parted.

All in all she had an rather normal start in the day.

* * *

In the noon, after school ended, she had planned to meet up with friends.

So she went to Joseph's restaurant, a nice restaurant that was rather popular.

When she arrived nobody was there yet so she sat down, ordered herself an green tea and waited.

Twenty minutes later Uiharu arrived.

Uiharu, full name Uiharu Kazari, was a middle schooler. She was around 12 to 13 years old and rather small for her age. Uiharu had short , black hair and golden-brown eyes. She was a member of judgment, a, you could say, security force build up of espers to uphold the laws of academy city.

"Hello Misaka-san!"

"Hello,Uiharu. Isn't Saten with you?"

"No, she needed to do groceries so I came beforehand.", Uiharu answered going to the table Misaka was sitting when...

"U~i~ha~ru!", Saten said, coming what seems to be out of nowhere, while flipping up Uiharu's skirt before she got the chance to sit down.

"Ah, I see today is the day for blue stripped ones", she commented cheerfully on the other girls panties while Uiharu pressed down the lifted skirt with a face red out of anger and embarrassment and turned around.

"S-Saten-san, I told you already, stop doing said!"

Saten Ruiko was of the same age as Uiharu, but taller with roughly 160cm. She had black, long hair and blue eyes. A hair pin with a small, white flower was often placed in her hair on the left side.

After the commotion calmed down both sit down at the table.

Saten asked:"Where is Kuruko-san? I thought she wanted to come too?"

"She has paper work to do so she couldn't come.", came the answer from Uiharu who has now managed to get her face back to normal.

"Ah, ok. It's a shame but it can't be helped, I guess.", replied Saten while Uiharu ordered tea and cake for both of them.

"Did you heard this new rumor? that there walks a demon through the streets punishing all the bad guys?", Saten asked wearing an excited expression.

"As if there is something like that.", Misaka replied not believing it for a second.

"It's true! There were many witnesses who saw her."

" 'Her'?"

"Yeah, 'her'. It is said the demon has the appearance of a girl in her late teens."

As the three continued their conversation the time flew by.

* * *

Suddenly, after they had eaten and paid, one could hear a explosion when they started to walk away.

A bank on the other street burned as 4 persons run out of the it carrying bags you could see were filled with money.

As Misaka was about to step forward to stop the robbers, you could hear a loud and angry sounding yell.

"OI, STOP!"

the source of the voice was a girl standing some meters ahead of the robbers.

That caused the 4 to stop in their tracks while all eyes wandered to the girl who let the yell out.

She had red, long hair which was tied up in a ponytail. Her bangs was brought to the side by a plain hairpin, framing her face. She had green eyes, which remembered you at glittering emeralds. Her height was around 163cm and she had well pronounced curves.

"Do you know what you are causing right know? My little brother becomes 13 today so I want to make this day as special as possible for him. Like bake a cake and cook a big and beautiful meal. But for that I need, of course, ingredients. Regrettably I didn't had enough for the cooking part and be in need of buying groceries.  
And of course in that specific time my purse needed to be empty. So I went to get money from the bank because I have lost my card. Do you see the problem?  
Correct, I can't really get the money when you have robbed and burned down the bank. So, to make things easier and let them go on smoothly, I would like you to return the stolen money and go away peacefully", she hold a long speech which in return lead the by passers and robbers to look dumbfounded.

When the 'boss' regained his composure he grinned at her and said:"I have a better idea. You play with us a little and we give you the money you need."

At that a predatory grin appeared on the girl's face and she had a sinister gleam in her eyes.

"Oh", she replied, now with a playful tone in her voice: "Ok, no problem. But I must warn you: I like it a little more... rough."

"No problem. Rough is the best way to play it."

She neared herself in a seductive way, hip swinging in the walk and the look still remaining on her face.

When she was in front of him, she playfully stroke him along the collarbone with her index finger. when the finger was in the middle of his chest she pushed with the fingertip forward slightly.

The reaction was instantaneous. The 'boss' flew backwards and took one of his companions with him. they landed thirty meters away, unconscious because of the sudden and fast acceleration. Everyone's eyes where widened and fixated on the two robbers laying on the ground.

"Why are you surprised? Didn't I warn you? I like it rough."

With that singly sentence every pair of eyes wandered to the girl.

She stood there with the same expression, licking over her upper lip.

The other two robbers looked at her eyes filled with shock and tried to understand what had happened.

Than one of them stormed at her with a loud battle cry. He punched, but his fist stopped about an centimeter before it could connect with her right cheek.

"Good, good. Without a little struggle this whole thing would be very uninteresting.", she commented grabbing his arm and neared her face to his.

"My turn."

She threw him up in the air.

When he felled down at her, she stopped somehow his fall and began twirling him around her arm. After some rotations around his own axis he got thrown in his still on the ground laying unconscious companions.

The time he landed on them was the time the fourth one was already on his way.

The sudden smash woke the first two of them up.

All four turned to the girl with fearful looks in their eyes.

Said girl started to walk toward them and smiled, eyes like ones of a cat who found a mouse to play with.

"I would really like to play with you a little more but time is running out. So we need to make things go faster."

One of the four, a pyrokinetic apparently, threw in panic a fireball at her. The fire engulfed the body and near area and cut off the vision one could get from the girl.

The robbers breathed in, relieved they got her in the end and out of the situation.

They stood up, turned around and walked away, but stopped when they heard a laughter.

The same laughter a villain has. The same sending shivers down your spine. The same that normally brings nightmares to little children.

The robbers turned around to see the girl completely unharmed walking out of the fire giving of this terrible laughter.

"You're good. A Pyrokinetic, mhm? And a strong one too, around level 4 I would guess. If I would be someone else I would have been fried. But too bad things like that won't work on me.", she said casually as if it would be the most normal thing to walk out of fire unharmed and, most importantly, alive.

" Let's continue! Come on! Entertain me more! More!"She said coming nearer and nearer, With every little step she took the robbers shaked more and more in fear.

Then suddenly sirens chimed and trucks of anti-skill stopped across the whole place.

With that as Signal she stopped and her expression became as innocent as the face of a little baby.

Every witness gulped. 'What an fast attitude change.'

The robbers just ran towards the anti-skill personnel.

"WE ARE SURRENDERING! TAKE US IN! JUST GET US AWAY FROM THIS MONSTER AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!", they yelled while pointing at the girl.

The personnel just looked in the direction the robbers pointed and saw the girl making an innocent face.

'Nobody would buy that face. The difference in attitude is too extreme.'

"Mha, mha. You can't just call an innocent girl like her a monster just because you got caught. I know it is hard to swallow your pride, but please don't blame others", one of the personnel said handcuffing them, his partners nodding in agreement.

'they bought it!', everyone who witnessed the whole thing thought in unison and couldn't believe it.

After the arrest one robber looked relieved through the back window of the truck he was in.

The girl saw that and winked him while saying:"Bye~bye."

The robber's face changed from relieved to terrified while the truck drove away.

She turned around and started to walk away.

But then the girl stopped when she noticed Misaka, Uiharu and Saten looking at her curiously, the two later with a expression of awe.

"She is it!", Saten suddenly yelled, voice filled with excitement.

The girl had no idea why Saten suddenly yelled, pointing a finger at her.

So she did the one and only thing that came to her mind.

She waved at Saten awkwardly and replied:

"Uhm, hi?"

* * *

**Author's note:** _That was my first try on writting an fighting scene. I really hope it was good, but when not, just follow my request and leave constructive feedbacks!_


	3. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 3

**Next chapter out. thanks for the positive feedback i got from you!****I decided to make here at the top a section to answer comments/reviews you write to my story.**

_**'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**_

***Sargent Crash*: ****Thanks****.**** I decided to answer this question in this chapter. It's not some kind of body enhancement,sorry, and I must warn you and others: **** I designed this ability to be something you don't want to be up against, meaning it's an overpowered ability. So just read and find out!**

***I-Zach1832*:** **Thanks. I will probably update thrice weekly. If not, than it just means I hadn't had the time or a lack in creativity.**

_Chapter 3: a certain temperamental redhead II_

"The name is Kurokami Kumiko, it's a pleasure to meet you!", the girl introduced herself to the three after getting the money she went to get.

"For me too. My name is Uiharu Kazari."

"Saten Ruiko."

"Misaka Mikoto."

"So, Kurokami-san,...", Saten began when they walked along a street but got interrupted by Kumiko.

"Just Kumiko. Kurokami is a little too long."

"Ok. Ähm, Kumiko-san, what is your ability and level?", Saten asked her eyes gleaming with curiosity, which also was in Misaka's and Uiharu's eyes.

"Telekinetic, Level 4.", Kumiko answered which seemed to satisfy Saten and Uiharu, but Misaka remained suspicious.

"Why didn't you just attacked them from a distance if you were able to, then?", came a question from Misaka.

Kumiko eyed her for a short time before watching frontward again and began to elaborate.

"To induce fear."

"Why fear and in this strange way? And wouldn't it be enough to just knock them out from a distance?", Saten asked, now again gleaming with curiosity.

"For the first, the 'why', because it made fighting them easier."

That explanation lead to a puzzled look in the other three girl's faces.

"Humans are easier to read when under strong emotions. So let me ask you a question: What is the one thing humans fear the most?", Kumiko asked when she saw their puzzled faces.

"Things that are dangerous and terrifying, right?", Saten answered.

"Close, but not entirely correct. What human's fear the most are things they can't see, can't understand, don't know what it is. If I would have just attacked them over a distance, they would have thought 'Hey, she is a telekinetic' and that would be it. The fear would be gone and they would have had an idea how to fight me. And that is also one of the reasons why I didn't just attack them from a distance."

"And the other reason?"

"The other reason would be that I had an giant amount of stress building up over the past days and I just needed to vent. And what is better for venting stress then entertainment? What I did was just for that: Entertainment."

At that answer Misaka, Saten and Uiharu sweat drooped.

But even this explanation didn't seem to be enough for Misaka. Kumiko noticed that and signaled her 'We talk later'. That seem to satisfy Misaka and let her forget the topic for now.

"Saten-san, what did you mean with your exclamation 'She is it!' earlier?" Kumiko asked, remembering it.

"I meant you are the one from the rumor."

"Rumor?"

Saten got her notebook out and showed her the site with the rumor.

"Here, this rumor", she said while pointing at the post.

Kumiko read through it. When she was at the word 'demon' a vain pooped up on her forehead and she began to emit killing intent. Around her the temperature seemed to drop.

"Fufufufu... it seems there is someone with a death wish. But do not worry, I can fulfill this wish. Fufufufufufu...", she laughed creepily, leading the other three to being slightly scared, and asked then:

"Saten-san, can you give me the penname of the author who has written this rumor?"

"Yeah, but I don't really think that will help you.", Saten said giving Kumiko the name.

"Do not worry, I have my ways.", she answered happily while Saten didn't worry about her not finding him but about the person who had posted the rumor.

'Sorry, man. Rest in peace.', Saten thought seeing an dark aura surrounding Kumiko.

"So, after we have talked about my powers and the death wish of a certain author, can you help me with my groceries and the party preparations? I don't have enough time now to do both by myself.", Kumiko asked the three other girls, aura vanishing.

"Ok, but wouldn't it be a problem if we help you? I mean, it's the birthday of your little brother and we know each other just since today.", Saten asked.

"Nah, it's ok, he doesn't have many friends because he goes in a special institution so it would be nice to have more there", Kumiko answered while leading them to a nearby supermarket.

* * *

After they had bought the groceries and brought them to Kumiko's apartment, Saten looked on the watch of her handy.

"AH, Uiharu, we need to go now.", Saten said to which Uiharu looked too and nodded in agreement.

"She is right, we need to go now. Sorry."

"Nah, no Problem. Just go before your too late for whatever you are going to go to.", Kumiko replied cheerfully and Saten and Uiharu walked away and out of the building.

Kumiko opened the door to the room and went with Misaka following in her apartment.

Misaka was surprised how big it was and looked around bringing the groceries with Kumiko in the kitchen.

"So, you wanted something from me, right?", Kumiko began while starting to prepare for cooking.

"Yeah. What is your ability in reality?", Misaka asked starting to put plates, glasses, and cutlery on the table.

"You have noticed, huh?"

"There is no way that this was telekinetic.", Misaka said while frowning, confirming Kumiko's suspicion.

"And why do you think that?", Kumiko went along.

"Because of the acceleration caused by the push you did. It doesn't match up with the damage at him. And the landing also. You could have slowed him down to avoid damage, but you didn't. So why was he only unconscious and hadn't had broken bones?"

"Sharp observation. Your right. I'm not an telekinetic."

"Than what is your ability?"

"My ability is called 'E-Control'."

That lead to Misaka's eyes showing curiosity.

"What does it do?"

"The answer to that is rather simple, to accept it is rather hard for most people.", Kumiko answered and chuckled slightly.

"Stop hitting around the bush and just tell me", Misaka demanded wondering what the other girl found funny.

"Well, the ability 'E-Control' enables the owner to manipulate and control energy.", Kumiko explained.

"And? There are many abilities that allow control over energy. Electromaster, for example."

"No, what I mean is I can do that with any kind of energy: Electric, kinetic, thermal..."

"You're lying", Misaka replied, not believing it.

"I'm not.", Kumiko answered, rather pleased by the reaction she got.

"Ok, let's say this is your ability, hypothetical: How is such an ability possible? And what level are you really?", Misaka asked.

"Well, my real level is something I don't know. The last time it got measured it was level 4 and at that time I was only a telekinetic. To explain my ability we must begin with a little 'my story' session. But before I start the story telling, did you know about the rumor that says 'the ability that negates other abilities'?", Kumiko asked her.

"Yeah, I know this rumor," Misaka replied, leaving the 'I even know who has this completely crazy ability'-part out.

"That makes things a little easier. I don't know if you know it or not, but this rumor is true.", Kumiko said eyeing Misaka who didn't react the way others would react, but let it slide.

"It all started with a bunch of scientists wanting to replicate this unexplainable phenomena through scientific means, to create the 'unbeatable sword and shield'. So they started a project, named 'Uranus project'.

The idea behind it was to produce espers that could give similar results as the negate-ability. Quickly an thesis was formed. they took child errors with abilities that were, in some ways, controlling energy.

They started to use testament to overwrite the personal realities of each esper with thought patterns and equations of others that had an different kind of energy controlling ability. Thermal hand, Electromaster, and so on. But many children couldn't stand the overwriting process and died.", she told while she started to cook.

"In the end only twelve, me and 11 others, survived the process. But the result given wasn't enough for the scientists: Even though we could control all kinds of energy, we could only defend ourselves against things we saw coming.

'So what to do' the scientists thought. They got the answer through the combination of their project with another one called 'Dark May-project'.

It was basically the same as the Uranus project, but they used the thought patterns and equations of accelerator, the number 1, to overwrite our personal realities. They aimed to get the equations for the auto-defense of accelerator combined with our energy control.

That again cost lives. The strain on the brain was too much for most and the only one who survived was me. But even though my ability worked now even automatically, they marked the whole Uranus project as a failure and ended it."

Through the whole explanation Misaka was silent and looked down. She raised her head and saw the sad expression on the other girl's face. After an moment Kumiko let the expression vanish and replaced it with a smile.

"Enough of sad stories, time to explain the ability and show it. That way you will be able to believe it.", she said and started explaining the workings behind it.

"Well, the defense part of my ability is rather short in explanation. I run subconsciously equations, similar in working as the first's. I give certain 'limitations' to what can reach me. For example air molecules that are over a set velocity get slowed down to become unharmful. Or if an physical attack with more kinetic energy than from me allowed is used on me, the kinetic energy behind it will get set to zero, rendering it useless."

Kumiko then ordered Misaka to fire a little electricity at her for demonstration. She did so but was, even after the whole explanation, astonished as the electricity couldn't reach Kumiko and dispersed right before hitting.

"When we start talking about the active usage-part of my ability we must differ between 'manipulation' and 'control'.

'Manipulation' is the increasing and reducing of energy. That is easy to explain.

The fun part of my ability is the 'control'-part. For example ", she said, went to the table and placed a single finger under the edge of said table:"If I set the table's potential energy to zero and then lift up my finger while increasing the energy to match the energy requirements needed to lift the table up...", she said and did like explained.

The table was lifted up by her single finger while staying in the same Position, meaning parallel to the floor.

She let the table be in that position for a few seconds and then put him down.

Misaka was again dumbfounded by the presentation, much to the entertainment of Kumiko.

"Ok, now after I showed you my ability, I have a question for you:",Kumiko began: "What did I do with the impudent robber who proposed me to interact with them in nightly activities for the money I needed?", she asked while she returned to her cooking.

"You increased the energy behind the push?", Misaka answered, but blushed slightly at the dry explanation of the obvious intention the robber had.

"Not quite. If I did that he wouldn't have been just unconscious, considering the energy needed for this action to let him fly this distance.", Kumiko replied shooting the thesis down instantly and happily stirred the content of the pot she was working on.

"Then what did you do?"

"It's rather simple, really. All I did was to increase the energy of movement he had from the push.", she explained.

"Aha.", came the reply from misaka nodding in understanding but still looked like something was bothering her.

"What is it that is bothering you? It's literally written over your face."

"I just thought that your ability is too overpowered. I mean, like you explained it to me you are like a second accelerator."

"Nah, it's just a more fundamental ability then most. The more fundamental a ability is, the more usage and power it has. But my ability isn't perfect. You remember I said that the scientists marked the project as failure?", she asked and Misaka nodded.

"That was because I couldn't control or manipulate AIM fields. No matter what I do, I can't stop an esper from using his/her ability so I can only negate the product, not the working. Unlike the original's my ability was meant to be a copy from.

Another thing is that my ability is limited in range, and that strongly. Only around 1 centimeter from my skin away, because my ability works through generating a AIM dispersion field as the medium for my ability, which is also similar to the first.

And the last and one big flaw is that there is a limit to how much energy I can control and/or manipulate. That in combination with the first flaw I listed make my shield breakable, it's just really hard to do so.", she finished her explanation and turned off the top plate, turning around and looking at Misaka who seemed satisfied with the answer she got.

"I have one remaining question. Do you want to fight me sometime?", Misaka asked after a few seconds with hopeful eyes.

Seeing Misaka's eyes Kumiko couldn't help but laugh and replied:

"Sure. But only when I have time."

Hearing that Misaka's face literally gleamed from delight.

After she spoke that sentence the door of the dorm opened and in the doorframe was...


	4. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 4

**The next chapter! I know I said thrice a week, but I had the 'I want to write'-feeling still remaining after I finished the third chapter, so I just written the next!**  
**Why it got uploaded now and not with the third chapter: I didn't finish it completly at this point of time.**  
**But now the boring comments of an author end and the story continues, have fun.**

**'To aru majutsu no Index doesn't belong to me, only my OCs'**

_Chapter 4: the darkness in the light_

Around the time the four girls went into a supermarket, which he obviously had no idea about, Kamijou Touma finally got out of school.

Because his homework got soaked with detergent, which, what he knew later, was highly flammable, and an spark of electricity coming from a lamp and setting said soaked homework on fire, he hadn't had the homework.

Of course he knew there were risks about buying and using cheap detergent, but the risk of burned up homework wasn't a risk one would think of when buying the detergent, was it?

So he needed to attend the detention class again. With him was another member of the Delta Force, namely Aogami. He once again didn't do his homework simply because he wanted to be scolded by tomoe-sensei, the, out of his point of view, personification of loli.

After he was finally off school grounds he walked back to his dorm, but not directly. He still needed to buy groceries to replace the sour ones in his fridge.

Luckily, which he knew would be biting him in his ass later, a grocery store in the nearby area had special offers he wanted to buy to spare some money.

In contrast to a certain middle schooler, he didn't possess a big amount of money and the salary he got as a student was not much. Add to that an freeloader with an black hole as stomach needed to be feed and you have an idea how vital these special offers are.

So he went to the grocery store. On the way, nothing 'abnormal' happened.

He helped an older lady, a rare occurrence in academy city, over the street and chased, catched and brought an balloon back to a little child who lost the balloon.

Finally, after some more situations where he just needed to help, he was in front of the grocery store's entrance.

He stood still, breathed in deeply and made himself ready for what he was about to step in.

Then he went through the door which opened automatically.

The interior of the store was a warzone.

Students and teachers alike jostled and pushed each other.

Esper used their abilities to get the groceries they needed from a distance or hinder other persons from getting what they want to.

Gales rushed through the store in order to snatch money out of hands to eliminate opponents.

Beams of energy flew through the air aiming to hold other customer's from reaching the cash desk.

The shop assistant was completely overwhelmed and not in control of the situation. Her head jerked from one side to the other, bewildered by the situation in the store.

Touma, who survived the battlefield of world war III and many other life and death situations, knew exactly, after analyzing the happenings in the store, which route through the fighting crowd he needed to take to come out alive.

Then he took off.

'First to the eggs.', Touma thought.

Whilst running, He jumped over an incoming barrage of cucumbers, rolled off to use the momentum and then negated an beam of green energy flying towards him.

He came to the eggs, grabbed an carton with his left hand, whirled around, negated an incoming fire ball and started to run again.

After he got the other things he needed while jumping over corpses and other things, dodging food and storage racks, negating incoming abilities and sidestepping thrown punches, He arrived at the cash desk, slammed the obtained goods on the desk without breaking them and shouted:"I WANT TO PAY!"

After the shop assistant pulled herself together and Touma paid, he turned around and saw the aftermaths of the battle.

Corpses, goods and shelves laid all over the place. The survivors hobbled, some leaning against each other for support, collecting the things they needed that were still in one piece.

* * *

Touma, exhausted from the situation in the store, walked out of the store and along the street on the pedestrian path to get home.

After some time, he noticed that he was alone on the street.

No pedestrian, no car, nothing.

Wouldn't he be so exhausted from the fight earlier, he would have noticed it the moment he got out of the store.

He stopped, awaiting what was bound to come in this situation. It wasn't the first time he saw something like that.

This specific situation meant only one thing: Magicians!

And they didn't wait long: Five of them came out of the alleys and towards him. He didn't know who they were, but a group of magicians normally meant trouble.

"Imagine breaker, we would like you to come with us.", the one nearest to him said.

"Why?", Touma asked, shifting slightly in a position he could easily start fighting.

"That's unimportant right now.", the magician answered him.

"If that so? in both ways, I'm not coming with you", Touma said, preparing for the unavoidable.

"Haaaaaaaaa...", sighed the magician.

* * *

The person who tracked Touma the whole day swore under his breath:"For heaven's sake! Why do they always appear when you don't want them to?"

Then he sighed:"Well, it can't be helped. Time to become active!"

And with that the person jumped off the building.

* * *

The magician ordered his companions:

"I didn't want to do this, but if I'm forced to: Get him!"

The other four who didn't do anything until know, stormed towards Touma.

They knew their magic wouldn't bring much so they relied only on physical attacks.

Touma made himself ready to defend, even if the odds were against him.

But suddenly, when the magicians were only 5 meters away, lances came flying down from the sky and drilled themselves in the ground right in front of them, letting them stop.

The lances were around 3 meters long and had a plain form, a pole with a long, sharp tip. They were orange and glowed slightly.

"Nah, nah, nah, what have we here? a group of 5 attacking a single student? That's a little unfair, don't you think? I think I need to give you five a 'a fight with an superior enemy is a unpleasing situation'-lesson so you don't pick on a single person in groups again. Don't you agree?", suddenly a cheerful voice sounded.

All looked behind Touma, who also turned around to look, and saw that there stood a person roughly 5 meters above the ground.

_In the air!_

The air under his foots seemed to glimmer slightly like hot air over a fire.

Said person was a boy, not older than 13. He had a petite build, showing that he was at most in the beginning of puberty. He was around 158 cm tall, small for his age, and wore a sleeveless, gray hoodie, hood covering the upper half of his face hiding it, with a red T-shirt underneath. In addition to that he also wore blue jeans and had his hands in the pockets.

"Get away, brat. I don't have an idea how you got inside the barrier, but when you interfere we need to kill you.", the magician threatened him.

At that the boy began to chuckle.

"What is so funny?"

"Well, there are two things:",the boy stated.

"The first is that you won't be able to touch me except you being a Level 5."

At that statement the 5 magicians tensed up, seeming to know what an Level 5 is capable of.

Then the cheerful voice changed into an dangerous and pissed of voice. Orange glowing particles started to spin around the boy.

"The second is that you called me a brat making me snap."

The magicians started to frantically chant spells and fired magic at the boy, prioritizing him over Touma feeling the threat he is.

But an invisible barrier, only slightly glimmering when their attack connected, held their attacks off. Suddenly the particles became more and more and assembled themselves into double-edged blades.

The boy said, almost ordered one single thing:"Run!", and then fired blades after blades at them.

The magicians didn't let it say to them twice and retreated while dodging the incoming, endlessly seeming stream of blades, knowing they couldn't win.

After the magicians retreated and the barrier was down with their departure, the boy walked down.

_Through the air!_

"Hello, I didn't ask you after your name until now, did I?", he asked and took the hood of, revealing short, ebony and messy hair and orange eyes that seemed to shine slightly, remembering you at cut ambers.

"But where are my manners? My name is Kurokami Kureno, nice to meet you!",He introduced himself.

"Kamijou Touma", Touma introduced himself too but then noticed something.

"MY GROCERIES!"

One of the blades went through the bag he had the groceries in and left them in a massacre.

"Sorry, tehe...", apologized Kureno and smiled sheepishly.

After seeing the downed expression on Kamijou's face and the tearing eyes, he couldn't help but feel grave guilt.

"Let me pay you back.", he said to Touma who now held the carton eggs he bought with a distant stare.

"AH, I know how! We can go to my apartment and then give you some groceries from there. My sister would be there but that won't be a problem.", Kureno offered, lifted his left hand and snipped with his fingers, letting the blades and lances falling apart into particles, which vanished shortly after that.

"Ok, then let's do this.", Touma answered and sighed.

'Now it will take more time to accomplish the feat of getting something to eat to my dorm room. And with every passing minute Index will become more furious... such misfortune...', he thought while following the other boy to his apartment.

"Kamijou-san, who were the guys earlier?", Kureno asked.

"Just a group of espers. It seems I attract people like them.", Touma answered, not wanting to reveal magic to the boy. That and he didn't want that, if he named magic by its name, the other boy would think of him as someone who fled from an asylum.

Kureno just nodded and seemed to accept the answer.

* * *

After the walk and a completely unimportant conversation about games and the circumstances they both lived in(Touma left out Index) they both stood in front of the door to Kureno's apartment.

"Well, here we are.", Kureno said and opened the door with a key.

The apartment was spacious and left an friendly impression.

It got occupied by currently two persons.

A red headed beauty which gave off the aura of a Onee-san, and...

"What are you doing here?", asked him no one less than Misaka Mikoto angrily.

She started to emit electricity.

"C-Calm down, this Kamijou Touma is completely innocent. I got attacked by a group of esper for reasons unknown. Than Kureno-san helped me out but hit by accident the bag of groceries I attained in a battlefield caused by special offers.", Touma explained and Misaka and Kumiko both thought 'Battlefield?', but let it slide.

"So to compensate for the accident he offered me to give groceries from his apartment.", he said the reason why he went with Kureno.

Kumiko smiled at the explanation, seemingly proud of her little brother to do something like that.

"I'm sorry, but I already used them to cook. Of course I can give you something in a keep-fresh package, so that you can eat it at home.", she offered him.

"That would be nice. See, Biri-Biri, that is the way a girl should behave!"

"Oh my, thank you", Kumiko said as response and smiled warmly.

Misaka on the contrary shouted an 'SHUT UP!' and tried to send electricity at him, but got stopped by Kumiko putting her hand on Misaka's shoulder.

"Mi~sa~ka~san", she said in a sweet, almost too sweet voice.

Misaka turned to her and gulped, the same reaction the two boys had.

Kumiko had her eyes closed and had a sinister, almost sadistic smile plastered on her face.

"We don't want to start a fight in this apartment,_ my apartment_, do we?", she asked and the temperature seemed to drop.

"N-N-No, w-we don't w-want this.", Misaka replied scared while Kumiko gave of the same feeling her dorm manager gave of when seriously furious at someone.

"Good, good...", Kumiko said drawing her hand back from Misaka's shoulder and changed back to normal.

She went off to the kitchen and came back with a giant keep-fresh package.

"Here, for you. And Kureno", she said, giving the package to Touma and then turning towards Kureno.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!", she yelled and pulled him in a hug. A crushing one.

"Happy birthday!", Misaka also said but quieter.

Touma looked dumbfounded and then said:

"It's your birthday? Why didn't you say something? Happy birthday!"

Kureno tried to thank them but couldn't because he was suffocating from the hug.

"Uhm, Kumiko, you should stop. Your brother can't breathe."

"Oh", was Kumiko's reaction and let the now already fainted Kureno out.

"It seems he need to eat the food tomorrow."

"I go now, if it is ok.", said Touma and Misaka wanted to leave now, too.

"No, problem. Just get back to your dorms.", Kumiko said.

Both left.

Kumiko brought her fainted brother in his room and laid him gently on his bed.

"Good night", she whispered and covered him with his blanket. Then she left him and went into her kitchen to get herself a tea.

* * *

Suddenly her phone ringed.

She looked at the number on the display.

The moment she saw the number her mood dropped to absolute zero.

She accepted the call and asked bluntly:"What is it?"

"Why do you sound so displeased?", a indefinable voice sounded through the phone.

"Because you are the one who called me, former leading scientist of the Uranus project. Or Should I say Board Chairman and Superintendent of academy city,  
_Aleister Crowly_?"

"Just call me like you want, Valkyrie.", Aleister answered.

"Nice to know, neutron. But you haven't answered my question yet: What do you want?"

"I have a new mission for you. There are 5 magicians in this city right know. They attacked and tried to capture Imagine breaker. Dispose of them."

At that Kumiko clicked with her tongue displeased.

"Ok. I will do so. But remember, Aleister: I don't know your plan. Nor do I know your aim or how you want to achieve it.

But I know that you need Imagine breaker for it. And he isn't dumb. He most likely know already that Imagine breaker is more than just a hand that negates the supernatural. And I know he won't move like you want him to. He is not a pawn from you like me.", She said and wanted to hang up but decided to continue.

"Ah, one more thing: The reason I do what I do is to protect my little brother, nothing less, nothing more. If the protection you offer for him someday won't be enough, I will pulverize this whole goddamn city and bury you under the debris.",she said and hung up.

Then she went through the door outside and locked it behind her.

After that was done she took off.

* * *

The five magicians rested in a area near the wall surrounding academy city, forming a new plan to get the Imagine breaker.

"What have we here, 5 little magicians sitting together and thinking. What a rare move for you".

They whirled around and saw Kumiko emerging from the shadows of an alley, smiling.

"Who are you?", one magician asked her.

"I'm called many things: Abomination. Monster. Even Shinigami is one of them. The list is rather long and I'm too lazy to list them all up now, but the most known name I have would be... 'Valkyrie'.", she said while coming nearer.

The moment she mentioned the name the magicians started to tense up and fear was in their eyes, let them shake slightly. They enlarged the distance between them and Kumiko.

" Today you are supposed to be my entertainment, so... ", she said and took the next step with a small hop in it.

Suddenly she was face to face with the one who had asked, 20 meters away from her original position.

"Entertain me!"

Out of panic he fired an fireball which harmlessly dispersed when it made contact.

She simply backhanded him like a bothersome insect which lead to him getting torn apart and his remains sticking on a wall.

The other magicians trembled in fear as Kumiko looked at them, showing an predatory grin and licked over her lips.

"Your turn."

And then screams filled the night.

* * *

Kumiko stood now alone in the area and looked, eyes filled with sadness, over the massacre surrounding her.

Bloody remains of the first still stuck to the wall.

The second was a puddle of melted flesh.

The third was scattered over the whole place.

The fourth and fifth got evaporated and were now a gas mixture in the air.

"I hate it.", Kumiko said and jumped outside of academy city.

"I hate it! I hate it! I HATE IT! IHATE IT SO GODDAMN MUCH!" she yelled and punched the ground, causing a crater and an earthquake.

* * *

**Welll, that was something.**  
**I need your feedback about the rating of this story. Now it is still 'T', but I don't know if I should change it in 'M', 'cause of the content that will appear more frequently from this chapter forward.**  
**So, I wait for the feedback.**  
**I'm out, bye.**


	5. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 5

**The fifth chapter! hope you enjoy it!**

**'To aru majutsu no Index doesn't belong to me, only my OCs'**

**_Chapter 5: The flickering of the light_**

_"And now to the news: Last night around 11p.m systems detected seismographic turbulences. theorists are searching for answers what had caused them. Supposedly it has something to do with the crater five hundred meters away from academy city. The diameter of the crater is around 100 meters and the depth is 75m. There is a thesis for saying it being an declaration of war, but who gave the declaration isn't known. Now to the weather..."_

Misaka listened interested to the radio while eating breakfast. Kuroko was away since last evening so she had a peaceful night.

'Hope the things that are keeping Kuroko so busy aren't from the alarming kind.', she thought while sipping at her tea.

At that moment Kuroko came inside the cafeteria , spotted her and came to her table.

"Good morning, Onee-sama", she greeted her.

"Morning", Misaka simply replied.

"Kuroko,", she began and Kuroko's fantasy run wild on what she wanted from her.

"What kept you all night up? you weren't in the room or dorm and the manager said you were excused, but didn't want to tell me specifics."

Kuroko began to sweat and said: "W-Well, it was just an exercise...", but got interrupted by the radio.

_"And here the breaking news: Two corpses were found at the west wall, killed in gruesome ways. The two victims were not citizens but trespassers. It was most likely the work of an esper. Anti-Skill and Judgment are still investigating and hadn't found the murderer yet."_

"Just an exercise, huh?", Misaka asked rhetorically.

"Cat out of the bag like it seems. But Onee-sama, you are not allowed to investigate by yourself", Kuroko ordered her.

"Yeah, Yeah. But you can tell me information, right?"

"Like said, the two victims got killed in a gruesome way. The first was only sludge on the wall. The second got scattered all across the area."

At that explanation Misaka needed to cover her mouth with a hand and tried not to chuck up.

"I had the same reaction when I saw it. Luckily I didn't eat. Well, back to the topic, there were traces that indicated that the two had 3 more companions, but they couldn't be found."

"Some ideas who could be the culprit?"

"The culprit needed to be an esper to achieve such results. Probably an telekinetic, the cause was most likely kinetic energy. But because it's an common ability the amount of possible culprits is large."

Whilst hearing to the telling Misaka was in thoughts.

She remembered something that she heard a while ago.

***FLASHBACK***

_"Ok, now after I showed you my ability, I have a question for you:"Kumiko began: "What did I do with the impudent robber who proposed me to interact with them in nightly activities for the money I needed?", she asked while she returned to her cooking._

_"You increased the energy behind the push?", Misaka answered._

_"Not quite. If I did that he wouldn't have been just unconscious, considering the distance he flew.", Kumiko replied shooting the thesis down instantly and happily stirred the content of the pot she was working on._

***FLASHBACK END***

'Why do I think about that? she couldn't be it. I mean, she has an sadistic side but she isn't an murderer. And that doesn't match up with her overzealous and warm personality.', she said to herself and remained in thoughts.

"Onee-sama, remember what I told you: Don't do anything!", Kuroko pulled her out of her thoughts.

"AH, uhm, why do you think that I plan to do something?"

"Onee-sama, please, I know you better than most. I can tell if you are up to something."

'Dammit, Kuroko.', Misaka thought frustrated and denied it instantly.

* * *

Kamijou Touma survived last evening through, what you could only call, a miracle.

When he came through the door to his room Index flew already towards him, teeth bared and ready to pierce Touma's head ,who had 'forgotten' her and left starving.

Touma in response activated his K.O shield with a 50/50 chance of success, namely opening the keep-fresh package he got from Kumiko.

The smell of food had an instantaneous effect and the bared teeth got drawn back, Index landing on the floor without harming him.

whilst eating the food for dinner She and Touma started tearing.

'It's heavenly!', they thought in unison and Touma thanked Kumiko for making his life easier than it would be while enjoying the food which he, if he didn't know it was made from Kumiko, would have thought to be from a first class restaurant.

But It seemed that _this one single fortunate occurrence_ would leave an aftershock to drag Touma down to the reality of his misfortunate life.

_Literally._

They both were already sleeping when the seismic turbulences reached the area his dorm was located.

The effect was devastating.

All water taps and the showerhead got destroyed, leading to a flood in the bathroom Touma was sleeping in. He let himself drifting through the water and watched his rubber duck swimming past him.

'Such misfortune', was his only thought before the chain of events began to get longer.

Index opened the door when the water was around 1,50 meters high.

She did that because she got woken up by the turbulences thinking it was an attack or some other deadly danger.

The very moment she opened the bathroom door ,she unleashed the flood.

But the result of a completely soaked dorm room was not the only thing Touma needed to worry about.

Touma, who drifted motionless in the water, got dragged through the door by said flood towards Index.

He ended up on top of Index. That in turn unleashed the concentrated fury of a bite-happy nun on Touma.

The only way he could bring Index to stop biting was to promise her to get more food cooked by Kumiko.

Touma decided to go to her tomorrow to ask for more.

* * *

He was about to go to Kumiko and plead her to make more when Index had the brilliant idea to go with him to see the, like she called her, 'angel who brings the heaven's fruit'.

So the two of them walked out of the room, locked it and were on their way to the apartment of the Kurokamis.

Touma looked up and saw the news zeppelin flying over academy city, broadcasting the same news that were in the radio earlier.

'I bet that this is the damn magicians doing.', Touma thought bitterly.

When they arrived at the apartment and used the door bell, the door got opened after some time by Kureno.

"Kamijou-san, nice from you to visit. What's up? And who is that girl?", He asked.

"Nice to see you too. Well you see, I wanted to bring back the empty  
keep-fresh package back and Index here wanted to see the one who made it."

"How does she know about the food?"

"I'm living in his room. And the food was great.", came the answer from Index before Touma could find an excuse why exactly she knew about the food.

"Ah, what she mean is...", Touma began but got interrupted by Kureno midway.

"No need for an excuse. To live with a girl is not really a crime and no different than living with another boy, right?"

'Such innocence!', Touma thought thanking god for Kureno still not knowing about things like that, but couldn't help but wonder why.

"More importantly, I would like to get more.", Index said, drooling at the thought of getting more of the food from Kumiko.

"I'm sure she would love to make you more. Unfortunately, she isn't home at the moment. But I can say her that you would like to get more."

"Thank you, and sorry for bothering", Touma thanked him.

"Nah, nah, that isn't bothering at all. I'm sure she is going to be happy that you enjoyed her food and that you brought the keep-fresh package back."

"Then... bye.", Touma said.

"Bye."

And with that Touma and Index walked away and Kureno closed the door.

* * *

Kumiko was in a very bad mood. She had turned off her handy and tried to clear her head.

This night she couldn't sleep much like always when she did a 'mission'. Mission was an embellishment for the work she did. It was just simple annihilation.

The annihilation of persons who got on the bad side of Aleister Crowley.

The dream that kept her from sleeping was the same like the one after the missions she did before.

***FLASHBACK***

_In the dream she stood alone in an endless pool of blood. Every person she killed came out of the pool, now as decomposing corpse, and attacked her. She couldn't move. They grabbed her and..._

_Then she woke up, sweating and breathing erratically._

***FLASHBACK END***

She walked along the streets aimlessly when she heard an yell. A familiar yell.

"HELLO, KUMIKO! HOPE YOU'RE AS GUTSY AS EVER!"

Then an boy fell from the sky and landed in front of her. He had black, spiky hair and wore a T-shirt with a red sun on it.

Yeah, that boy was Sogiita Gunha, the #7 Level 5 of academy city. Wearing a excited expression on his face that literally gleamed from happiness, he smiled at her.

By passers looked at him bewildered but shrugged it off fast with thinking 'that is just how this city is.'.

* * *

They both knew each other for around a year.

At that time a scientist betrayed academy city and brought an esper to a research facility outside.

But he was very unfortunate or simply dumb: Out of all espers in academy city he chose Kureno, her brother.

That of course brought her near the point of snapping. She wanted to hunt him down immediately, but Aleister let her only outside when she would take a Level 5 with her. Aleister chose Gunha who immediately accepted, wanting to help her to get her brother back.

The Superintendent did that probably to prevent deaths, caused by her fury, that would strain the relation from academy city to countries other than Japan.

Over the hunt that ended in britain he became the closest to being her friend.

* * *

"Hey, Gunha. What are you excited about?"

"I did it!"

At that Kumiko raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"Gunha, what exactly did you manage to do?", she asked concerned, knowing in what reckless ways Gunha used his ability.

"The attack you did back then. It was hard, but with enough guts I managed to do it too. You know, the one you used to blast the building away!"

"AH, that one...", she said out loud and remembered.

***FLASHBACK***

_After they retrieved her brother and Kumiko carried him out of the building, Gunha spoke up and bumped his fist in the air._

_"Mission completed! I don't think they will ever do something like that again after we infused them with guts now!"_

_"Don't know ,but hope it. For their sake.", Kumiko replied and then asked: "Gunha, did you do what I asked you for?"_

_"Yeah, anyone is out of the building, safe and with guts!"_

_"Wonderful~," she said cheerfully and ordered then:_

_"Gunha, hold my brother for a moment! But Drop him and I drop you!"_

_Gunha, who gulped, took Kureno with extra care fearing what she would do with him if he dropped her brother._

_"What are you going to do?", he asked the girl, who now had an dangerous expression on her face._

_"Payback", she simply said, turning around to the building and crackling her left fist which she then moved in a punch-ready position._

_Then she began to accumulate, concentrate and spin plasma around said fist._

_Some seconds passed, then she punched forward in the air, unleashing a continuous wave of plasma which engulfed anything in a 60 degree angle in front of her._

_A few seconds, after the plasma was fired, the stream stopped, revealing the former building now being molten to a puddle of liquidated building material._

_she turned around and saw Gunha looking at her excited._

_"That was an attack full of guts!", he exclaimed with respect in his voice._

_"Thank you, I guess... ?"_

_"Let me try!", he said and gave Kureno back to her._

_Gunha copied her movements and tried, but didn't manage to do it correctly._

_"It seems I must accumulate more guts to be able to do this!", he said then, apparently a little down because he didn't had 'enough guts'._

_"Just keep trying and I'm sure you can do it.", she said to lift up his mood and gave him an teeth showing smile with a tooth seeming to blink._

_"Your right! I will work till I have enough guts!", he exclaimed happily and full of enthusiasm._

***FLASHBACK END***

" I named it 'Godly Annihilation'. Let me show you!", he said excited and got in a pose, left leg in front, right arm behind him, raised and ready to punch, his upper body slightly leaning backwards.

'WHY THIS STUPID AND MANGA LIKE NAME!', Kumiko shouted inside her head but held back not to yell.

"Goodlyyy...", he began and plasma started to spin around his right fist.

He made a punching motion. But before he got to complete the punch and unleash the plasma Kumiko hit him on the back of his head.

_Hard!_

Gunha's head slammed in the ground and the plasma dissipated harmlessly.

she successfully stopped an disaster from happening.

He sat up on his rear with a bloody nose, leaving cracks and an imprint of his face in the ground.

"Why did you stop me from showing my guts?", he asked, tears in his eyes from not being allowed to complete what he was about to do.

"Because you were about to _fire a stream of plasma in a crowded area_!"

"Oh", he said while now noticing the crowd surrounding them, some of them already fled from the area.

"Seriously, I need to tell you 'Think before you do something.' all the time. And now too!", she continued.

"Sorry, my guts told me to simply do that.", he said as an answer while rubbing the back of his head and smiling sheepishly.

Seeing that expression on his face that is as rare as an gemstone her mood lifted up and she began to chuckle.

"Don't worry, it's just your way. And... thanks. I needed that.", she said and showed now a genuine smile.

Gunha, who had no idea what she meant, simply said: "You're welcome!", and stood up.

"So... shall we go eat something?", she asked him not wanting to be in the middle of attention any longer.

But before Gunha could reply, a familliar and teasing voice said: "Uhhh, Kumiko-san, is that your Boyfriend?"

Both turned around and saw Saten looking at them with a mischievous smile and glint in her eyes.

"No, Saten-san, he is not my boyfriend, he is...", she answered, looked back at Gunha for a few seconds, looked back to Saten and then continued: "A rather... _special_ individual with a... _special_ mindset. And because he is so... _special_, someone needs to watch over him and stop him from doing anything... _special_.", she explained to Saten.

"And his name is...", Saten started and waited for Kumiko to finish the sentence.

"His name is Sogiita Gunha, #7 of academy city. And beware of the day when he or someone finds out what his ability is!", she introduced him and Saten looked happy, knowing one Level 5 more.

"Nice to meet you. You look like someone with guts!", Gunha said and gave her a thumps up.

Saten seemed perplex about that and didn't know how to react.

"Don't think too much about it, he is always like that.", whispered Kumiko to her and helped Saten with that out of the dilemma she was in.

"Hello, I'm Saten Ruiko.", she introduced herself.

"So, ...shall we go eat?", Kumiko asked again.

"Sure. Gutsy food would be great.", came an answer from Gunha and Saten nooded.

"Then, let's go.", she said and led the other two to Joseph's.

* * *

After they ate they decided to stay and talk about different things.

Well, it was more a conversation between the two girl's and some commentaries from Gunha, the full sense in them only known from Gunha himself, that were mostly about how the told stories and doings were related to guts.

Whilst they chatted cheerfully, Kamiko spotted a familiar blonde with messy haircut, accompanied by a dumb grin and sunglasses.

To see this person made her furious, but she didn't show it. Knowing the person wanted to talk, she said without changing her mimic:

"Sorry, I need to go now. Gunha, be a gentleman and pay for us!"

With that she took off, not giving the others a chance to say something.

Saten, finding herself in a weird situation alone with the #7, said:

"Well, ...how was your day?"

* * *

In an alley Kumiko slammed Tsuchimikado, with one hand grabing his collar, against a wall.

"What do you want, Blondie?", she asked, now showing her fury.

"Nya~, calm down, Miko-chan. Believe me, if I could I wouldn't bother you, the one and only 'Valkyrie'.", he said half jokingly, half serious.

"You didn't answer my question.", she said, ignoring the nickname.

"I want you to do me a favor.", he answered, now with a completely serious tone.

At that Yumiko couldn't help but laugh. Not a warm laugh of someone who heard a good joke. It was a cold laugh that froze the blood in your veins.

"A _favor_? Did you, the _'backstabbing blade',_ out of all people just asked me to do you a _favor_? What kind of sick joke is that?"

"It's not a joke."

At that Kumiko 'mhpf'-ed.

"Listen, the magic side is now serious. they want him. Alive. And you know why they want him. You know the true identity of it, what it means."

"And what has it to do with your favor?", Kumiko asked, fury fading and already suspecting what he was about to say.

"I want you to protect him. from both sides: Magic and science.", he requested.

"Two things that are coming to my mind: Firstly, why do you even go to such lengths for him? You, the 'backstabbing blade'? And secondly, why the hell should I even do that?"

"I do that because I consider him my friend. I know that something like this, coming from my mouth, sounds silly, but it is the truth: He is my friend and I want to protect him. But I don't have enough what it takes to do the job!

And why you should do that: I am going to owe you big, and your brother won't be ripped out of the wonderland you created for him.", he said, looking her in the eyes while still being pressed against the wall.

They stayed in this position, she thinking about it. Then she let him go. She was about to walk away, but then turned and moved her mouth close to Tsuchimikado's ear.

Then she said quietly, almost whispering:

"Fine, I'll do it. But when there is a single lie you told me now, I'm going to rip the beating heart out of Maika's chest in front of your eyes, before torturing and killing you in a way, so horrifying, that even the #1 will shiver in terror."

And with that she walked away, leaving a pale Tsuchimikado behind.

* * *

When she was alone she slammed her hand against the wall.

'Why did I do that? To think that I become more like a monster the more I want to protect my brother from monsters; such irony...', she thought, laughing bitterly.

Then she walked out of the alley on a street.

She bumped together with a person. Said person was an boy who had a really petite build, white hair and red eyes. He had a cane in his hand and an electrode around his neck. If she would have had an clear head she would have recognized him.

"Hey fucker, watch were you walk!", he yelled at her.

"You know what: I'm in a reeaally bad mood now! So piss off, you damn albino, before I add you to the wall!"

"Huh, really?", the albino said and moved his hand to the electrode.

The next moment hell broke free.

* * *

**Two of the 9 monsters living in academy city are going to clash. I think that the next chapter is going to become really interesting.**

**With this chapter I brought** **in two more Level 5's. If I add more... only I know.[muhahaha(completely misplaced laugh)]  
I found it hard to write Gunha in this chapter. That was because I didn't how much, I don't now a better word, Gunha-ness I should add to the way he speaks and his behavior.  
**

**The next chapters are going to bring in more fights and the puzzles I seeded will get closer to get solved.**  
**But of course not at the same time, that would be boring and anticlimatic.**

**Remember to give feedback or reviews or whatever you want to write(flaming is not part of the things)!**

**With that, I'm out! Bye**


	6. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 6

**Sixth chapter!**

**the 'author answers and says something probably important'-section:**

***Sargent Crash*: Well, to the question: I haven't decided yet if I do one or more pairings. But when I started writing this fanfiction, I let myself some freedom to be able to change some things. So, if you or others want a pairing, just write it and maybe I bring it in the story!**

**To the love of Kumiko to her brother: I keep wondering if you are a telepathic or something in that direction. You always write things I decided to answer in the next chapter. And yes, she is very obssesive with her brother, but with a reason you will see... in this chapter...[(narrowing of eyes)Damn telepathic... maybe an aluminium helmet will help...].**

**And here ends the unimportant comments of the author and the adventure continues.**

**Nothing of 'To aru majutsu no Index' belongs to me, only my OCs!  
**

_Chapter 6: The chains binding the light_

The housing block was only debris, destroyed by merely two persons, both enough to annihilate an complete army and come out alive, unharmed and with a smile.

Everywhere laid concrete, parts or wrecks of cars and molten things you couldn't recognize anymore.

But like a miracle no person got injured and everyone else already fled.

Said two persons vanished and appeared everywhere across the area, one boy and one girl, clashing again and again.

Stone broke, metal bended and craters got created by the points where the two rammed their fists and foots at each other.

The girl smiled whilst the boy frowned, apparently being displeased.

"What are you looking at me like you saw a ghost? Surprised there is an esper your ability can't kill immediately and who fights on equal terms with you?", the girl asked.

Then he spoke up: "Who are you fucker?"

"I'm the thing lurking in the darkness, devouring the ones that this city marked as a threat.", she answered in a metaphorically way.

"Stop with that bullshit and say who you are!", he yelled angrily and black wings erupted out of his back, heading at the girl.

"Telesma, huh...", she said.

The moment the black wings made contact with her they distorted in a strange way and dispersed.

"WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU, YOU FUCKER?", he asked yelling.

" Two reasons", she said.

"One being that this little brain of yours, that got oh so wonderfully damaged, limits your strength to three fourth of your former. If you would have your former strength, you would most likely overpower me."

At that he began to snarl.

"Two, I have lots of more experience then you in fighting opponents who are on equal or only slightly weaker standing.", she answered calmly, still smiling.

"STOP THIS BULLSHIT, I'M GOING TO...", he yelled, but then a voice suddenly sounded.

"Accelerator, what happened here?"

Both turned their heads towards the speaker.

The one who said that was a woman with blue hair in a ponytail, wearing Anti-Skill clothing and a bullet proof west.

"Yomikawa, what the fuck are you doing here?", he asked angrily.

"Of course I need to come here if you and another one demolishes an entire block!", Yomikawa answered.

"OH, how sweet~. You know each other?", the girl suddenly asked and raised her hand mimicking a pistol and pointing at Yomikawa.

"YOU WILL NOT DO THAT YOU...", Accelerator yelled, knowing what she was about to do.

"Oh yes, I will!", she said while accumulating plasma at the point of her index finger.

"Bang!"

And with that she fired the blob of plasma at Yomikawa.

Accelerator got immediately between them and shielded her, but let the girl out of his view for a brief second.

The moment he looked back she was not there anymore.

* * *

Gunha realized something was wrong the moment he heard breaking and explosions.

He shot up, grabbed Saten and brought her out of the danger zone.

Then he ran back fast but was already too late.

He saw the place that got destroyed and the #1 staying in the middle getting yelled at by a woman with blue hair.

"This white haired person screwed up. How gutless!", he said to no one in particular.

* * *

'I screwed up!', thought Kumiko holding her head with one hand, now outside the destroyed area, and walked towards the building her apartment is located.

'And that badly! A whole housing block getting destroyed just by me getting angry at someone? And that someone out of all people is the #1?That is such a bad joke that I can't even laugh about it!'

she sighed, resuming her walking.

* * *

When she arrived at her apartment and went in, she saw Kureno playing video games.

Remembering the request from Tsuchimikado she said:

"Kureno, you played the whole day, didn't you? Go outside and do something there."

He simply replied with an 'ok' and went outside.

She took out her phone, dialed a number and moved it to her ear.

After some time someone accepted the call.

"Hello?", the person on the other end said.

"Hello. I have an job request for ITEM."

"Name request, your or your organization's name and bank data."

"The request is the protection of a certain someone, name Kamijou Touma. And for the other two things, just say to Mugino: 'Do that and you are clean with the Valkyrie.'. Thank you!", she said and hung up when the other person gasped at her mentioning her code name.

Kumiko went into the kitchen, took a glass and an package of orange juice and poured some in her glass.

"Nee-tan, I didn't know you were like that. You know, ramming a lot weaker boy against a wall and threatening him with killing his sister."

The very moment she heard this particular voice she resisted the urge to throw something at the owner of the voice and to turn around. After she collected herself she said:

"Percy, what did I say to coming into my house without permission? And stop speaking like that, it's creepy!"

"Very well, if you want. Ah, my name isn't Percy anymore, I changed him."

"Very interesting.", she answered, her voice filled with sarcasm.

"So, what is the reason I have you asshole in my apartment right now?"

"Uh, that hurts. You still didn't forgive me?", he said theatrically.

"No. Not after your appearance last time."

"That was an accident!", he exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So why do I have this giant pleasure of you being here?"

"I'm concerned." At that she turned around and saw the typical distorted black silhouette he used to hide his characteristics, leaning against the wall on the other side of the room.

"About what?"

"You."

At that she raised an eyebrow.

"I'm good, thanks for the concern."

"You're lying and you know that! Stop doing what you are doing now. It eats you up."

"It doesn't matter if it eats me up."

"Kumiko, listen...", he began but got interrupted.

"NO, YOU SHOULD LISTEN! I'M DOING THAT TO KEEP HIM, TO KEEP MY BROTHER SAFE! YOU WERE THERE AT THAT TIME! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO HIM; WHAT HE WENT THROUGH!", she yelled at him, tears now forming in her eyes and both remembered what happened.

***FLASHBACK***

_The two of them ran through the streets towards the facility that was their destination._

_"Run faster!", she ordered him and propelled herself with her ability forward, reaching the speed of sound._

_He simply run next to her with a distortion surrounding him, keeping up with her hasting easily._

_'Please let him be okay! Please!', she thought worried to death._

_A minute later they arrived. Kumiko didn't even bother and just went right through the defense forces and the walls without changing her route._

_Percy slipped right through anything that was in his way and also didn't change his route._

_The moment they went through the last wall they saw it._

_In the middle of the room was her brother, chained in a weird looking construction. It was a ring with four joists, on for each of his hands and legs. What seemed to be robot arms pointed at him and started to glow. Then they fired beams of energy at him. He began to scream in agony._

_"KURENO", Kumiko yelled and sprinted towards him, but an barrier surrounded the construction, keeping her from approaching._

_"KURENO! KURENO! KURENO!", she screamed again and again, slamming her fist in the barrier with every time she let an scream out, but it wouldn't budge._

_All the time her brother screamed and his flesh began now to dissolve. After a while his skeleton could be seen, glowing orange. An explosion of light suddenly flashed in live._

_When the flash dimmed down, her brother laid in the middle, now again with flesh and all but stock-still, the construction boiled away and the barrier dissolved._

_With no barrier there anymore she ran towards him and kneeled down beside him._

_She picked up his motionless body and hold him in her hands._

_"Be alive! Oh please, be alive!", she pleaded and searched for life signs. She found none._

_Then she pressed his body against hers and started to cry._

_"Don't worry, he is not dead.", came a male voice from the loud speakers_

_"Ki-hi-ha-raaaa...", Kumiko said enraged and full of cold, bloody intent to kill._

_"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?", she yelled, letting her emotions running free._

_"We accelerated just the natural process, that's all.", came the answer._

_"Percy, phase yourself with him away!", she ordered the boy, not taking 'No' as an answer._

_"Ok, if you want." He said and did like told._

_After he vanished with her brother and stood in some distance outside, the whole research complex vanished in an shockwave of stone and lava, shooting up in the sky and then came down again._

_The place where the area where located was now a sea of lava, elucidating the night._

_Kumiko stood in the middle of the sea with her head raised, streams of red energy shooting out of her back, screaming in fury._

_***FLASHBACK END***_

"Yeah, but..."

" NO BUTS! IF THE PRICE FOR MY BROTHER BEING ABLE TO LIVE AN HAPPY AND SAFE LIVE IS ME BREAKING, I WILL HAPPILY PAY THAT PRIZE! I WON'T LET HIM GO THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!"

"Even if he will be sad of you using yourself up like that?", he asked her.

"Even then.", she said, now speaking normal again but still with tears in her eyes.

A few moments of silence followed.

"If you think it is the right path to follow, then do it. But I will give you one last piece of advice: Stop shouldering everything and let yourself help from other people.", he said finally and vanished into thin air.

She looked for a long time at the spot he stood.

* * *

After accelerator got yelled at by Yomikawa, he was on his way back to the apartment he lived in at the moment.

'Who was this girl?' , he wondered and remembered the fight.

***FLASHBACK***

_Accelerator turned on the switch of the electrode around his neck, granting him the power of the #1. He send a punch which would have easily pulverized an building._

_He expected the girl to turn into a puddle of blood, but was astonished when his fist stopped a centimeter before connecting with her._

_"Is that all?",she asked with a taunting fake yawn and responded with an stomp on the ground which destroyed the nearby walls and ripped the ground apart, sending a wave of debris at him, but the debris got redirected back at her._

_Before connecting the debris stopped and the girl pushed the debris slightly, firing the debris back at the speed of sound._

_Once again the debris came redirected but this time the girl decided it won't bring them anywhere. So she decided to simply shatter the debris flying at her._

_He stormed towards her and swung at the girl, she replying in kind._

_Two forces, enough to let a 30kg TNT bomb look like a party cracker, collided._

_That let half of the two buildings on both sides of the alley be blasted away, a crater created where their attacks clashed._

_Then the real fight broke loose._

_Plasma melted anything in its path._

_Buildings fell apart, hit from a punch or kick._

_Cars and trees flew through the air by gales and shockwaves._

_Debris shot up in fountains and buried anything that got under it._

_And the two who caused all this laughed like maniacs while running wild._

***FLASHBACK END***

He got pulled out of his thoughts by Misaka Worst who suddenly popped up beside him.

"Hey, you're thinking. Misaka sees that for the first time. Good work, keep it up.", she teased him, giving him a thumps up.

"You...", he said angrily.

* * *

Misaka Mikoto arrived at the site of destruction and looked around, wondering who was responsible for that. Then she shrugged and walked onward to the destination she wanted to go to, a game center.

But not any game center. In this specific game center you got a very rare gekota figure if you could the high score at a boxing machine.

While she walked along the crime site she saw two Anti-Skill members talking with each other.

"I heard Accelerator has caused this."

"Yeah, I too. Heard he fought with a girl that pissed him off."

"What did she look like?"

"Red, long hair tied into a ponytail. She was in her late teens."

"And she survived?"

"Apparently."

At that description Misaka stopped.

'Was that Kumiko? But she wouldn't survive against him, would she?', she thought and then listened further to the conversation.

"Were a matching profile found?"

"No. There are no recordings to do so. And from the information we have we can't find the one who caused this."

'That excludes looking at the recordings.', she thought and decided to walk onward.

'When I see her I will ask!'

* * *

Mugino Shizuri was pissed off.

She was in the apartment ITEM currently owned and paced up and down.

"This goddamn Bitch! To resort to something that is 2 years in the past, who the fuck does she think she is?", she said angrily to no one.

The other three members, namly Hamazura Shiage, Takitsubo Rikou and Kinuhata Saiai watched her pacing. Fremea Seivelun was sleeping in her room.

"Has she finally lost it?", whispered Hamazura to Kinuhata, who was sitting to his right. To his left was his girlfriend, Takitsubo.

"No, but I think she is super close to that.", she whispered back and the three looked at Mugino again.

"Ähm, Mugino, what exactly is bothering you?", he asked her carefully.

"That there is a bitch that called in a 2 years old favor and wants me to protect some random guy."

"And who is the one you super owe a favor?", Kinuhata asked.

" I don't know her real name but she is known by Valkyrie."

At that answer Hamazura flinched and looked at Mugino like she is crazy.

"Valkyrie? The Valkyrie?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Why do you super react like that?"

"Oh, I don't know, only _that she is a fucking monster_! And who is the un...lucky one...?", he asked hoping his suspicions were not true.

"A guy named Kamijou Touma.", she said.

"So it's really boss.", he said and sighed.

'It seems you attract any kind of monster; Sorry, man'

"Boss?"

"He is one I hold in great respect. Was the one who made me back out of Skill-Out."

"So he is the one we super owe him that we have to struggle with you right now?", Kinuhata asked, definitely wanting to tease him.

"Hey!"

"Enough of the chit chat! Let's just bring this fucking mission to an end so I can finally cut the connections with her.", Mugino ordered and they walked out to start the mission, leaving a note for Fremea.

* * *

Kamijou Touma walked through the streets towards an grocery store.

Kumiko not making some food for them and an empty fridge leaded Touma to need to buy new food. He already brought Index back and kept her occupied through Tsuchimikado Maika, Motoharu's sister.

Then he got a weird feeling. That kind of feeling that someone looks at you but is out of your view. From time to time he looked around, fearing a Level 5 would pop up any moment and making his life harder than it already is.

After seeing that there was no one that could fulfill the criteria, he shrugged it off and continued what he was doing.

He didn't know how close to the truth he was.

On his way to said grocery store nothing 'abnormal' happened.

* * *

In some distance were a group 4 persons. The people building up this group were the members from ITEM.

They followed a certain boy on his way to buy groceries and observed.

Well, some more than others.

Hamazura couldn't believe his eyes and wanted to laugh but could hold it in, watching further.

Mugino had also an disbelieving look on her face. After a while she didn't pay much attention to him.

Kinuhata was extremely happy and exclaimed whispering: "That super is like a C-movie! In real life!"

they watched how Touma was now being chased the street up and down by a group of pissed off girls.

Before that he helped 6 girl's with directions, got caught in the explosion of a vending machine, nobody knew exactly why it exploded, and saved a cat from the incoming danger of a car speeding at said cat. After that he got a beating by a large breasted girl with black hair.

The group of pissed of girls was caused by a gale, skirts getting blown up and an unfortunate boy laying on the floor from the beating, panties visible for said boy.

Rikou didn't say anything and simply kept watching. But there was something that was bothering her.

Hamazura noticed it.

"Rikou, what is it?", he asked her concerned.

"Nothing, it's nothing", she answered and returned to her normal, neutral facial expression, but then said what was bothering her.

"I was just wondering, how come he has no AIM field when his profile clearly said epser?"

"It could be an databank error and he is no esper, how unlikely it would seem.", Mugino gave an answer.

"No way! I saw his ability with my own eyes!", Hamazura exclaimed louder then wanted.

"What super is his ability?", Kinuhata asked curious.

"Maybe the ability to make other males perverts?", throw Mugino in.

"That would super explain why Hamazura is Hamazura-y."

"That could be the reason."

"First of all, I'm not a pervert! And secondly, that isn't his ability.", he said loudly.

At that the other three looked at him with a stare that clearly said 'as if'.

"Don't worry. Even though you are a pervert, I still love you.", his girlfriend said to him reassuringly.

Hamazura sighed.

"So, what is his super ability now?", Kinuhata asked, now deciding to stop teasing him.

"Don't want to tell you anymore.", Hamazura said pouting.

"Haaaa, then don't say it.", Mugino sighed.

* * *

Kumiko sat in the Kitchen, being in deep thought.

'Let myself help from people? As if I could that. It would just drag more people into the darkness of this fucked up city.'

Her handy ringed. She took it out and saw her brother's number on the screen. Then she accepted the call.

"Hey, Kureno! "

"Sister, where did you send me?"

"Please what?"

"After I got out of the apartment and walked through the streets, you called me. You said I should go to the park in district 15."

Kumiko began to get nervous.

Kureno continued:"When I arrived, many armed persons were waiting. They wanted me to come with them."

Now she began to panic:"Where are you right now? Are you safe?"

"Yeah, I got away, but why did you send me there?"

"That wasn't me! Listen now closely, Kureno: You will go now to district 7! There lives a old friend of mine! You will stay with him for now! a certain dorm, Room 102."

"What do you mean it wasn't you? And who is your friend?"

"It was most probably a scientist interested in me. He wanted to use you as a hostage to get me to cooperate. Don't worry about it.", she lied.

"But why should a scientist...", Kureno began but got interrupted by Kumiko.

"No buts now! Just trust me, it's nothing serious, and I'll explain later. I only want to make sure you are at a safe place. And this friend of mine is, or was, called Percy, he is the #6."

"...Ok. I will go there.", he said and hung up.

She immediately dialed a another number. The call got accepted.

"Aleister, what is going on?"

"I decided that you became an unstable and dangerous element. So I nullified the contract.", he stated in a manner-of-fact voice.

"What? Why?"

"You don't need to be surprised. You caused a lot of commotion, so I couldn't keep you as agent anymore.", he said.

"You bitch!", she said angrily, her hopes and believes shattered. 'If he do that in the end why did I kill so many? Where is the sense in that?'

She then suddenly began to smile. Her smile became more and more animalistic with every passing second.

"Do you remember, Aleister? I said ' I'm going to pulverize the whole city and bury you under the debris if your protection someday won't be enough.'. Guess what, I'm going to do exactly that. Bring out your whole military and the whole darkness you created. Try to stop me. And when I left your whole defense destroyed, I will come and get you, Aleister. And don't even think the windowless building, your fortress, will stop me; It will not. The only thing it will be is a nuisance, something I destroy in 5 seconds at most.", she said and hung up.

When she left through the door she had only one single thought:

'Let the war begin.'

* * *

Kureno arrived at said dorm room. He knocked and a boy opened the door.

"Nah~, what do you want?"

"My name is Kurokami Kureno. My sister send me her."

The #6 immediately remembered an certain conversation.

***FLASHBACK***

"Percy...", Kumiko spoke up after the incident, carrying her brother.

"Yeah?", he asked

"If at some point of time anything happens that will threat his safety, I will send my brother to you."

"Why?"

"Because when I do that something big had happen and it will give aftershocks. Your room combined with your ability will be perfect to keep him from coming back to me or getting in the cross fire."

"My room?", he asked, not understanding that part.

At that she smirked at him.

"Your room is stuffed with anything an Otaku or someone who loves video games dreams about. Or do you think I will him send to a safety spot without thinking about anything, including entertainment?"

"You're right, you wouldn't do that.", he smirked back.

Both began to laugh.

***FLASHBACK END***

"I already got an call from her, come in.", he said and let Kureno in his room.

Then he asked:

"... Do you like video games?"

* * *

**Chapter 6 ended! Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Here is a little Omake I came up with while reading Sargent Crash's review! And don't ask how such an idea came to my mind! _No one_ can understand this brain of mine, not even myself!**

**Omake:**

Kumiko and Gunha sat in Kumiko's apartment at the kitchen table, eating.

"I love you!"

At that Kumiko looked up and saw Gunha staring down shyly at the food in front of him, face not visible.

"What did you say?", she asked, not able to comprehend what Gunha said.

"I love you", he repeated and Kumiko blushed.

" I..." she said.

"I LOVE YOU, YOU HEAVENLY AND WITH GUTS FILLED FOOD!", he exclaimed while lifting up his plate, helding it in the air like the holy grail itself, tears of joy flowing from his now visible face.

"You...", Kumiko began, emitting killing intent and subconsciosly using her ability, melting the fork and knife in her hand.

"YOU BRAINDEAD IDIOT!", she screamed and upper-cut him with all her might.

One could see the #7 shooting through the roof and in the night, yelling an long

"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY?"

**Omake****end.**

**And with that, remember to leave an comment, question or feedback!**

_**I'm out, bye guys!**_


	7. Valkyrie Incident: Chapter 7

**The seventh chapter!**

**I want to thank for the positive feedback I got before the adventure proceeds. **

**Thank you!**

**And now the story continues.**

**Enjoy!**

_chapter 7: broken wings freeing the light_

Kumiko walked over the street towards the windowless building. The whole district got evacuated.

In front of her was a barricade, hastily set up, and all weapons pointed at her.

The barricade was build up of two tanks, three Anti-Skill trucks and one FIVE_OVER, a special and unmanned power suit, equipped with a gatling railgun, in power even surpassing the original it was build after, the #3's signature move.

Normal powered suits were all around, accompanied by Anti-Skill personnel and members of Judgment.

Kumiko stopped and got immediately surrounded.

Four Six Wings came, flying over them.

And even with so much fire power pointed at her, she had an bored expression on her face.

"Anti-Skill, Judgment, two tanks, one FIVE_OVER, powered suits and four Six wings, huh? I expected more to say the truth.", Kumiko said.

"You're the girl Accelerator fought!", shouted Yomikawa, now being noticed by Kumiko.

At that the defense forces became nervous.

"Correct, that was me. Pleased you remember me. And know that you all know what I'm capable of, I'm going to say a sentence a person I know says. Something that suits this situation perfectly: _Do you have the guts to fight against me?_", she said, a predatory grin forming on her face.

At that the FIVE-OVER fired a barrage of shoots with its weapon, bullets with enough force to rip through buildings.

Everyone was shocked to see the bullets piling up in front of her, levitating.

"Nice effort.", she commented and the bullets fell down.

She then vanished. The forces began to panic.

"Where is she?"

"I don't see her!"

Over the com came the answer.

"_I located her! She is standing on a Six Wing!_"

Every pair of eyes wandered to the now on top of a Six wing standing Kumiko.

"_Damn, the controls won't react anymore!_"

Kumiko watched bored as the others Six Wings repositioned themselves for an better firing angle.

"Well, even if this Six Wing is a nice standing place, I think I'm going to return him to you.", she said and slightly tapped with her foot on the helicopter.

It shoot down and slammed in the ground, exploding there.

But the eyes were still on Kumiko, who stood in the air.

"So,..." she asked everyone around her, deep crimson wings of energy shooting out of her back, the forces petrified by the monster that appeared before them.

The wings stretched and pierced the other Six Wings and one tank instantly, tearing them apart and then retracted back, getting positioned like a peacock wheel.

All started to fire, but the bullets evaporated the moment they got near her.

She descended to the ground and then walked towards them.

"Shall we get started?"

* * *

Gunha saw smoke rising up in the distance.

"There is happening something. My guts are needed!", he said and took off.

The moment he got there he saw wrecks and fire everywhere, bodies laying on the ground, but still alive, and Kumiko standing in the middle.

She currently hold the FIVE_OVER with her wings.

'So she is using those gutsy things again.'

"Kumiko, what are you doing here?", he asked.

She turned around, twisted the FIVE_OVER in the middle, ripping it apart, and spoke:

"Gunha, I didn't want you to see this.", she said.

"Seeing what?"

"I don't have time to talk with you now. I need to go.", she ignored his last question and walked away towards the windowless building.

"What are you going to do?", he asked another question.

"I'm going to rip apart the windowless building." she answered.

"STOP!", she heard a yell. She turned around to Gunha who has a serious expression on his face.

'Please, don't do that.', she thought pleadingly.

"I don't know what happened to you, but I won't allow you to do such a gutless thing.", he said, getting in a fighting pose.

'Please don't.'

"Get ready, because I'm going to insert some serious guts into you!", he said running towards her.

"Super...", he said, lifting his arm, hand in a fist.

"Amazing...", he stretched his arm backwards and jumped toward her.

"PUNCH!", he shouted and punched at her.

A explosion occurred, leaving Kumiko in a cloud of dust.

When the cloud cleared you could see Kumiko had stopped the punch with one hand.

She threw him over her shoulder in a nearby building, he crashing through the wall.

"Gunha, you can't stop me! So go away!", she ordered him, hoping he would follow.

"I can't do something so gutless!", he answered, walking out of the building unharmed. Then he got on a pose she already knew.

"Godly...", he began and Plasma started to spin around his fist.

"ANNHILATION!", he shouted and unleashed an stream of plasma, engulfing Kumiko and the nearby area around her.

The streamed died down and once again one could see Kumiko standing there, unharmed.

Then she began to attack too.

Her wings lashed out, grabbed debris or parts of the former machinery and threw them at Gunha.

He responded by dodging and destroying the things flying at him.

he then stopped abruptly, pressed himself with a foot from the ground and flew straight towards Kumiko, yelling:

"SUPER AMAZING KICK"

But when he was around 8 meters away she grabbed him with the wings out of the air, enveloping all his body but the head.

She moved him closer to her, he now being at her mercy.

"See, that won't lead you to anything! Stop that now!", she tried to convince him again.

"NO, I refuse to let you be without guts!", and with that he ripped the wings enveloping him apart, landed on his feet and punched her.

The punch stopped before it could harm her.

Then, faster he could react, she grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up.

"I'm sorry...", she said with sadness filling her eyes.

Then the wings pierced through him, coming out of his back.

His face was filled with surprise and... mournfulness?

Then his eyes glassed and his body became numb, limbs hanging down.

She laid his now motionless body on the ground gently and folded his hands on his chest. Tears began to run down her cheeks.

'I'm sorry, Gunha... I'm so, so sorry...'

Kumiko looked a last time on his body, wiped away her tears, turned away and walked onwards her target.

Unbeknownst to her, the place her wings had pierced him started to glow and distort...

* * *

Touma saw something in the distance.

It was the column of smoke that raised up from the area the fight was.

He didn't think about it and run towards the column, ignoring the stop shields and shut off.

Four persons followed him.

He found the area and looked shocked at the destruction.

'What had happened here?'

Then he saw a teacher from his school, namely Yomikawa Aiho, laying unconscious on the ground.

He ran to her and kneeled beside her, checking for life signs.

'Thank god, she is just unconscious!', he thought relieved.

He suddenly heard a stone getting kicked and a suppressed "shit!".

Touma turned around and saw Hamazura.

"What are you doing here, Hamazura?", he asked.

"Ähm, stopping by...?", Hamazura said sheepishly, trying to cover the real reason.

Touma looked at him for a few seconds.

Hamazura began to sweat.

"Well, ok. I'm going to look who had done that.", Touma said and walked in the direction the destruction took.

Hamazura, relieved Touma was sometimes an idiot, decided to follow him and signaled the others to follow suit.

They both stopped as they saw Gunha laying with hands folded over his chest on the floor, motionless.

They ran towards him.

"Hey, wake up!", they shouted and kneeled beside him.

Gunha had his T-shirt ripped and his chest and belly was bare, but unharmed.

Suddenly he sat up fast and looked around, confused and angry alike.

The sudden movement made them flinch.

"Where is that person that had lost its guts?", he asked in the round.

"Who?", Touma asked.

"A girl I know, former 'most-guts' I have met so far, name is Kumiko."

"WWWHHHHAAAAAATTTT? SUPER MIKO-NEEEE?!", they heard a girl yell.

All three turned around to the one who yelled, Kinuhata Saiai, who now stood in the open, looking at Gunha with wide eyes.

"Miko-nee?", Touma asked, wondering from where the girl popped up.

"You know her?", came a question from Hamazura.

"Well, it was when the Dark May Project was super still running...", she began to tell.

***FLASHBACK***

_Six years ago:_

_"Now, now, don't cry, Sai-chan.", Kumiko said to Kinuhata after the first overwriting process._

_She embraced Kinuhata tight, who was crying from the pain._

_"B-But it hurts so much, Miko-nee...", she said, tears rolling down her face._

_"Nah, nah, pain is indeed something that is not pleasurably, but we must overcome the pain to move further into the future. So be a big girl and fight against it with all your might, okay."_

_At that Kumiko pressed her more tightly against her and patted the back of her head, succeeding in calming her down._

_"Sai-chan, I will be away soon. So do me a favor: Stay alive by all means. Bite yourself through life. You will struggle sometime, you will be hurt sometime, but fight against it. Can you do me this favor?", Kumiko asked Kinuhata and released her so that she can look up at her._

_Kinuhata, though shocked that the other girl will be away soon, smiled at her and answered._

_"Will do, Miko-nee."_

***FLASHBACK END***

"... at last it was also Kumiko who super gave Umidori the chance to kill the scientists and that marked the end of the project, but I heard that only months later.", she finished.

The three boys had different reactions.

Hamazura had found respect for this him unknown person and started to feel sorry for Umidori who became Worst's plaything .

Touma was shocked to hear that Kumiko had let someone get killed and he too felt sorry for Umidori.

Gunha was... well, he was Gunha.

"I knew she had some guts! And because she lost them, we need to infuse her with some so she has guts once again!", Gunha exclaimed, jumped up and had a look of determination in his eyes.

"Let's go stop her before she does something really stupid.", Touma agreed and the other three nodded in agreement.

They sprinted through the path of destruction.

* * *

Mugino, who followed them in some distance with Takitsubo, had got herself an earpiece and listened to the com.

"She is a monster!"

"Stop her! Stop he- aaarghhh..."

" A Tank is lost, I repeat, a tank is lost!"

"Why won't my bullets hit?"

"She got the other FIVE_OVER!"

Mugino began to get... excited.

* * *

Everywhere laid wrecks and Anti-Skill or Judgment members, the street got ripped apart, and in the distance they heard gunfire.

The gunfire stopped then slowly and silence followed.

They saw Kumiko using her wings to pin a FIVE_OVER to a wall.

Suddenly the FIVE_OVER exploded.

"Kumiko!", Touma yelled and she turned around.

Her eyes widened when she saw Gunha unharmed, and alive.

"Miko-nee, what are you super doing here?", Kinuhata asked the other girl.

"Well, hi Sai-chan. Long time no see!", she answered smiling, now regained her composure.

"And could you please call out your little two friends following you?!"

At that point were hiding was useless, Mugino decided to come out, together with Takitsubo, who looked at Kumiko terrified, but nobody noticed it..

"To you too: Long time no see! Right, Mugino?", Kumiko greeted and everyone looked surprised at Mugino.

"Yeah, it was a long time, 'Valkyrie'.", she replied.

"WHAT? She is Valkyrie?", asked Hamazura, looking at Kumiko now in fear.

Kumiko fake bowed: "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Kumiko, you haven't given us an answer yet: What are you going to do?", Touma asked with emphasis in his voice.

"I'm going to make the man pay who made me Valkyrie, who is the cause of me becoming a murderer and who blacklisted me. I kill the one who made me a monster.", she answered him truthfully, not seeing a reason to lie.

"...Do you really think you are a monster?", Touma asked her.

"No, I'm not thinking it, I'm stating a fact. If you don't believe me, ask the black haired girl over there."

All looked at Takitsubo.

"She is not fully human.", she said after a few moments.

"What?"

"Her AIM field is not like that of an esper. Normally an AIM field is like a from the body pulsing out frequency. Hers is like veins flowing through her, starting around the clavicle. And it is far, far more dense than every human's that I saw."

"That's correct. I'm the one who failed to ascend, the failure of the Orion project. An Abomination of science.", Kumiko's answer came.

"You think you are a abomination? A monster? You, one of the most overzealous persons I know?", Touma asked.

"Yes, I think so. I'm physically not fully human, a hybrid, something that shouldn't exist. And I'm a murderer of many; There is no other way to describe me."

"Say, when you are truly a monster, why didn't you kill one of the Anti-Skill or Judgment?

If a person like you, a zealous, caring big sister, who would do anything for her little brother, calls herself a monster...;

If you degrade yourself to the level of the one responsible for all this...;

If you are going to go deeper into the darkness by killing another person instead working on paying for your sins...

then I'm going to destroy this fucked up illusion of yours!", he said with determination in his eyes, his right arm outstretched in front of him, making the hand into a fist.

Kumiko began to laugh, coldly and without any emotion in it.

"Very well, let's make a bet, shall we? If you are able to destroy my illusion, the illusion of Valkyrie, the angel of death, the abomination of science, the product of three whole projects, and make me a human once more, than I will stop the rampage.", she said, energy enveloping all of her body and the half of an halo formed over her head.

There were no more need for words.

Touma ran straight at her, evading the incoming wings.

One wing managed to hit him in the left side and he was send flying.

Mugino fired her Meltdowner, but couldn't harm Kumiko. She needed to get in cover as Plasma was send her way.

Kumiko's wings lashed out and produced an shockwave and a hail of debris.

Kinuhata simply ran through the rain of debris and was only 10 meters from Kumiko away, but a wing hit her, sending her away in the opposite direction and crashing in a wall.

Hamazura, who couldn't do anything to harm Kumiko, simply protected his girlfriend.

Gunha suddenly appeared in front of Kumiko shouting and doing an 'amazing punch', but his fist stopped before hitting.

One wing clashed in his side, letting him fly in a nearby building.

Mugino fired another barrage and let the area surrounding Kumiko explode, leaving it burn.

The fire vanished after some moments, revealing Kumiko unscratched.

The wings suddenly moved and pointed to a single point above her head.

Plasma started to accumulate at the point.

More and more Plasma got added and the ball of plasma got bigger and bigger.

Kumiko then send the ball on its way towards the group.

Before it melted them away Touma got bleeding in front of them and hold his right hand in front.

The moment the ball mad contact with the boy's hand the ball dispersed.

The ones who didn't know his Imagine breaker had wide eyes.

But they didn't have time to be suprised about that yet.

The next barrage debris came flying towards them.

"Hey, you said the point is at her clavicle, right?", asked Touma, dodging the debris.

"Yeah, why?", Takitsubo answered, hiding behind a wreck.

"Ok, listen up: I think I can stop her when I get to touch her. Can you open a path for me?", came a question from Touma.

The others looked at him and nodded.

"Then go!"

Touma began to run towards Kumiko.

40 meters left: Debris came flying at him but Kinuhata positioned herself in front of him, blocking the debris, and then ran with him frontwards.

30 meters left: Two wrecked powered suits came flying. Two green beams got fired and evaporated them before they hit.

20 meters left: 4 wings came in his direction but got punched to the side by Gunha.

10 meters left: Two more wings lashed out at him, but he grabbed and twisted them similar to accelerator's in Russia during world war III.

5 meters left: Kumiko stomped and send debris at Touma but Kinuhata blocked the debris, getting send flying by the force.

1 meters left: Touma reached out...

And his arm sunk into Kumiko's clavicle.

It looked like cracks opened on Kumiko where his arm subsided.

His arm went deeper until he felt like he touched something. He grabbed and pulled it out.

What he hold in his hands was a prism.

He clenched his fist and the prism fragmented.

The energy shrouding her, the half halo and the wings vanished slowly.

After a few seconds her body was visible again.

Kumiko's lips formed a smile while her arms hanged down numbly.

She said: "Thank you... for me... being able to be... human... again."

Blood began to came out of her nose, mouth, eyes and ears.

Then she fell on her knees, head laying in her neck and eyes starring up in the sky.

Her eyes began to glassing, her vision blurring.

She heard voices that seemed to be far away.

Something grabbed her on the shoulder.

The only thought in Kumiko's mind was:

'Thank you...'

Then all turned black.

* * *

Kumiko woke up in a hospital room. But something was different.

She felt...imperfect, incomplete, fragile, so... human.

It was a wonderful feeling.

She knew already who owned this hospital and used the call button.

The frog faced doctor smiled at her widely when he entered the room.

"Slept well, Kumiko-san?", he asked her.

"Very good, Heaven Canceller. I haven't slept so good in 4 years."

"It seems that someone had finally get you back from this path. And to think that you also get back to being human."

"Well, I think it's wonderful.", she answered but then her expression darkens.

"The 'back to being human'-part. I still want to rip him apart."

"Considering your history with him, It's not something to wonder about."

"Yeah, but a bet is a bet, I will stop attacking him... until he gives me a reason, that is.", she said and sighed.

"I don't think you will do that. You being back to human dropped the strength of your ability. You won't be able to get in the windowless building by force anymore.", he reminded her.

"That's true. But I can still defend Kureno.", she said.

"AH, before I forget, there is a person from Anti-Skill that need to talk to you. I call her and say that you are awake now.", and with that he left the room.

She looked at the date on the watch next to her bed.

'One week were I out, huh?', she thought.

* * *

After a hour the blue haired woman from Anti-Skill came in.

"Hello, my name is Yomikawa Aiho", she introduced herself.

At her sight Kumiko flinched, then bowed and shouted:"I APOLOGISE FOR WHAT I DID!"

The woman just smiled at her.

"Don't worry, I don't have a grudge against you. You didn't killed a single one in this accident, so it's alright. Though you need to pay for the damages you caused", she said reassuringly and gave her with a smirk the paper.

Kumiko looked at the bill and visually paled.

"That's double the amount of money I have!", she exclaimed.

"Only the double? I thought it would be at least hundred times the amount. And don't be surprised. After all you destroyed 150 powered suits, ten from them FIVE_OVERs, 20 Six Wings, 15 tanks, 45 trucks and 15 buildings." , she listed the things Kumiko needed to pay for.

"I have lost my job! How in the world should I pay for all of that?", Kumiko asked as desperation filled her.

"Don't worry, I looked at your profile and saw you already have a degree and a teaching license. I looked for a job for you in the time you were out. And don't panic, no one apart the persons involved in the fight knows that you caused the destruction.", she said and gave Kumiko a folder.

'Thank god I got myself these things to teach Kureno so he wouldn't get caught when he would walk to school!', she thought and opened the folder.

Kumiko looked at the job description and where she would work.

Then she turned to Yomikawa.

"Are you sure?", Kumiko asked.

"Yeah!"

"You are not kidding with me, right?", she tried to ensure what she read was not a bad joke.

"No, I'm not.", Yomikawa replied.

A large, large grin spread across Kumiko's face.

Yomikawa replied in kind and got one too.

"When do I begin?", Kumiko asked.

* * *

Misaka Mikoto's thought processes had stopped.

She couldn't comprehend what exactly was happening.

Misaka was in her classroom and in front of the class was...

"Hello, everyone! My name is Kurokami Kumiko and I'm going to be your teacher in all school subjects for the next year! Pleased to meet you all!"

"What?"

* * *

**And this was the seventh chapter!**

**In this chapter came up Touma's slogan. I just needed to put it in, it matched perfectly!**

**To the Dark May Project: I didn't really find an date from when to when it was active, so decided it to be six years so that it could match the relation between Kinuhata and Kumiko.**

**For the people who don't know how Kumiko's wings look like after I tried to describe him, I 'created' them after the wings of an arch angel from diablo III;(If you still don't know, just google it!)**

**With this chapter my first arc, I decided to give it the name 'Valkyrie Incident', ends! But do not worry, more chapters with a new arc are coming!**

**Remember to leave a review, questions you maybe have or feedback!**

**With that, I'm out! Bye!**


	8. Britannia Arc: Chapter 1

**Next chapter, new arc!**  
**Sorry it kinda took long to bring it out, but I was busy this whole time. My schedule was full and I couldn't find much time to write. But I hope I can upload it in a faster pace now.**

**Now enough with me and let the story go on with a new arc!**

_**Nothing of 'To aru majutsu no Index' belongs to me, only my OCs!**_

_Chapter 1: The past of the light_

Kumiko walked in the classroom.

"Morning, everyone!", she greeted and got an " Good Morning, Kurokami-sensei!" back.

Kumiko began to pout at the answer.

"I know, this is just the second day I'm teaching you, but I need to say it again: Call me Ku-mi-ko-sen-sei!"

She began to smirk and continued in a playful voice.

"That or Kami-sama if you oh so badly want to call me by my surname."

The students, not wanting to enlarge Kumiko's ego, just answered with a "Hai, Kumiko-sensei!"

"Wonderful~!", she cheerfully said and then continued with a more professional voice.

"Ok, after I got you to call me in the correct manner and before we start with the lesson, I need to inform you that today is a System Scan. You most probably know that already, but it's my duty as your teacher to remember you."

A hand raised.

"What is it, Misaka-san?", Kumiko asked.

"Do you also take the System Scan?" , was Misaka's question.

At that every girl looked at Kumiko with wide eyes.

"Sensei, you are an esper too?", came a question.

"Yeah, I am.", Kumiko said matter-of-factly.

"What is your ability then?", asked a curious voice.

"Maybe you will see it soon. And to come back to your question, Misaka-san: No, I will not take this System Scan.", Kumiko replied.

"So, now after the answer-and-question game has ended, let's start the lesson. Yesterday we started with the more advanced basics of AIM fields. To understand the workings of and behind an AIM field, you need to...", Kumiko began the lesson and wrote on the black board.

Suddenly the door opened and standing in the frame was the principal.

"Miss Kurokami, I need to talk with you for a moment."

"Of course, principal. What do you need?", she asked, instantly switching to a overly polite way of speaking.

"I want you to take the System Scan.", the principal demanded.

At that every girl looked more curious and watched what happened in front of the class.

"By all respect, why do I need to take this scan?", Kumiko asked confused.

"Since you are an esper with an ability that is... unique, we want you to train the students to improve them. But since your last System scan was nearly ten years ago, we want to confirm what level you are now. And no dodging the scan: Do it or you are fired.", the principal answered.

Kumiko hang her head down in defeat.

"Fine, I will do it. After the lesson. So, If I'm allowed, I would like to continue the lesson now."

"Of course, and I will watch this whole lesson.", the principal said and wandered to a chair on the other side of the room.

"Why do you want to do that?", Kumiko asked incredulously.

"Because you are such a young person, barely 2-3 years older than the students you teach, I want to make a special evaluation of your teaching methods and If you can teach them."

"If you insist. Now class, what I wanted to say is that to understand the workings of and behind AIM fields, you need to understand some things about them. Firstly, ...", Kumiko could finally start the lesson.

* * *

After class has ended She stood in the middle of a yard in a circle 120 meters in diameter with markings every 20 meters.

'That's why I didn't want to do it.', she sighed internal, looking around.

It seemed the news of her System Scan spread like wildfire over the campus.

Around 120 students were watching with curiosity literally written all over their faces about the new and very young teacher's ability and level.

Then a voice came through a loudspeaker.

"Now we are going to start with the System Scan. Try to destroy the circle."

"Roger that!", she answered and thought:

'Nothing bad can happen. Heaven Canceller said so himself: My power output is nothing compared to what I had as a hybrid.'

Kumiko decided to go all out and stomped without thinking too much about it on the ground.

The effect was devastating.

Her stomp caused a crater and a little earthquake.

Everyone's eyes became as round and big as supper plates out of shock and surprise.

Kumiko, now standing in the crater, looked also surprised.

"It was maybe not such a good idea to go all out, huh?", she said sheepishly.

The yard was completely destroyed, and spurs even reached the gym hall, a half from it collapsed.

The tester scribbled frantically on their clipboards.

"W-We know commence the second test and final test. Please go to the... still standing half of the gym."

She walked out of the crater and to the gym.

In the gym was a big ball of what seemed to be heat resistant alloy.

"Please heat the target up as much as you can."

The students began to whisper.

"She can do that too?"

"Just what is her ability?"

Kumiko sighed, walked to the ball and laid a hand against its side.

Then she began to heat it up.

The ball evaporated instantly, leaving the students and testers with open mouths.

"T-Tests complete." a tester said and the results of the analyzed data got announced:

"_Max energy output: 21.9 gigajoule._

_Time of manifestation: 0.5 microseconds._

_Result: Level 5._"

At that everyone gasped, including Kumiko.

'How is that possible? Level 5? That can't be true!', she thought.

Whispering erupted inside the crowd of students.

"Level 5?"

"The 8th?"

"And again at our school!"

"Now we have three!"

"Someone know what her ability is?"

"No idea."

Misaka once again in two days couldn't help but say surprised:

"What?"

The principal walked to Kumiko while she still was baffled over her new status of Level 5.

"Miss Kurokami, please follow me together with Miss Misaka to my office. It seems we need to go through some paperwork and talk about the ranking battles to determine your ranking."

Kurokami, who was still speechless, just nodded and followed with Misaka the principal.

* * *

The news got immediately broadcasted through whole academy city:

_"Breaking news: A new Level 5 was found today, the 8th since academy city opened the gates. We congratulate the new Level five, Kurokami Kumiko. She has already a degree in most academic professions at the young age of 17 and is a teacher at Tokiwadai middle school, one of the most elitist schools in academy city._

_Now we hear a comment from a scientist about this development and the question of her placement:_

_'Well, it was her first System Scan in ten years. Last time she was already a Level 4, so for me it's not a big surprise that she became a Level 5 over the years, considering her intelligence and talent she shows us by teaching at such a elitist school at this age._

_About her placement, her ability has a very wide range of applications and a considerable power output, so I would place her as the 5th or maybe even the 4th. But we will see what the ranking battles will say.'._

_Thank you for this comment and once again we congratulate the new Level 5."_

* * *

Standing in the principal's office were Kumiko, Misaka and Misaki together with the principal who sat behind her desk.

"So, now let's talk about the ranking battles.", the principal began.

"Miss Kurokami, you need to fight the other Level 5s from the #7 to the #1. When you lose against one you get the place of the last you won against."

Understood, principal.", Kumiko answered.

"Great! Now that is from the desk, let's get to the paperwork. You will get a extra allowance for being a Level 5 besides the salary you get for teaching. For your pseudonym as Level 5, you get the name 'Nova'. Questions?"

"None, principal."

The principal smiled and said:"About the teaching of students in their ability usage, I chose you because your ability is a hybrid out of all their abilities except teleport. Because of that I hoped that you could... help them to improve with their abilities and that they understand the workings behind it better."

"It might get entertaining. I will do it, but I can't do this for a long period of time because I need to care for my brother too.", Kumiko agreed.

"Of course. I know about your difficult situation and it will be considered."

"Thank you, principal. But if you will excuse me, I need to go now."

"Then out with you three.", the principal excused them.

The three Level 5s wandered out of the principal's office and closed the door behind them.

"Soooo, Level 5, huh?", Misaka asked.

"You aren't the only one who is surprised. I'm baffled too.", Kumiko said to her as answer.

"And your output is 21.9 gigajoule. I'm the third and mine is around 24 gigajoule when I attack normally without holding back."

Misaki interrupted their conversation with a fake pout:"How cruel, you don't even include me in the conversation~ability. Let me help you by giving you my name~ability."

And with that said she pointed a remote at Kumiko and pressed a button.

Misaki was baffled when her ability didn't work.

"Firstly, something like that won't work on me. Secondly, I know exactly who you are, Shokuhou Misaki. I didn't talk with you or include you in this conversation because your nature is close to that of another person I know who I don't really like.", Kumiko said coldly to her.

At that answer Misaki pouted more.

"I believe I know who you are talking about. And to think you put me in the same category~ability as him, I'm hurt.", she said theatrically.

"It's a woman but whatever. Misaka-san, I have a appointment to go to, so bye.", Kumiko informed and walked away.

"Bye, Kumiko-san.", Misaka said goodbye but then facepalmed in her mind.

'I forgot to ask her about the Incident with Accelerator!'

* * *

Kumiko walked to the dorm Touma's room was in to explain things to the group of people that were involved in the fight one and half a week ago.

***FLASHBACK***

_Kumiko laid in the hospital bed when the door to her room opened._

_Through the door came Touma and the rest who fought against her._

_She rubbed the back of her head and sheepishly apologized: "Ähm, sorry for the problems I caused for all of you. And Gunha... sorry that I kind of stabbed you through the upper body."_

_"YOU STABBED HIM?", shouted Touma and Hamazura shocked in unison._

_"No problem! Something like that won't kill my gutsy self!", Gunha reassured her at which she smiled._

_The others looked at him like they saw a ghost._

_"So, why are you here?", Kumiko asked in the round._

_"You said things to which we like to have answers to.", Touma said._

_"For example the super other two programs you were in.", Kinuhata gave an example._

_"Your past overall.", Hamazura added._

_"Well, I kind of expected that. Let's say I meet with you lot in... maybe 3 days? I get out of the hospital today and I need to start working at my new workplace tomorrow, so I have time the day after tomorrow."_

_"Ok, in my dorm room then.", Touma accepted the offer._

_"I will be there. But could you get out now? I'm sleepy and I need more rest.", Kumiko said yawning._

_"Good night then.", Touma said and went with the others out of the room._

_Kumiko's eyes closed slowly and she drifted into sleep._

***FLASHBACK END***

She knocked at the room door, shortly after that the door opened.

"Hi, Touma.", she greeted the owner of the room.

"Hi.", Touma answered and let her in.

The room was occupied by Hamazura, Kinuhata, Takitsubo, Gunha and... Leivinia Birdway.

Kumiko's and Birdway's eyes met, both frozen at the spot they were in.

Birdway's normally composed expression changed slowly into one of terror.

Suddenly Kumiko dashed towards her at a speed that Birdway couldn't react to.

She hugged Birdway and rubbed her cheek against Birdway's.

"Le-Let me go!", Birdway demanded, finding the position she was in embarrassing.

"AWWW~, your bossy altitude is still so adorable, Leivinia!", Kumiko almost purred and continued with the treatment.

The others who saw that couldn't help but sweat drop.

"Ähm, Kumiko-san, could you let her go? We want to hear what you wanted to tell us.", Touma asked to help Birdway out of the situation.

"Of course.", Kumiko said with a little sad expression and let Birdway go who immediately enlarged the distance between them.

"Now I think I should start with my full story. It began for 10 years when I and my brother were orphans living in a child error facility. At that time I got chosen for the first, the Uranus Project...", She began to tell while sitting down.

***FLASHBACK***

_Kumiko played in the garden of a child error facility with two others, one girl with brown and one boy with blond hair, and her brother hide 'n seek._

_"Got you, Yukino!", she laughed when she got the girl._

_"Ah, that was unfair!", Yukino shouted and chased Kumiko. When she couldn't catch her by sprinting alone she grabbed Kumiko with telekinetic, resulting in Kumiko being abruptly stopped and touched on the back._

_"You again!", Yukino said laughing and ran away._

_Kumiko, not wanting to chase her again, began to hunt down the boy._

_They played till it was dark. Deciding it was too late they went inside and in the bedroom, Kumiko carrying her already sleeping brother._

_Kumiko laid the sleeping Kureno in his bed and pulled up the blanket._

_"Good night, little one.", she said then left for her own bed._

_After Kumiko felt asleep she got an injection and taken away._

_She awoke in a dark room with many others, beside her Yukino still sleeping._

_She shook Yukino to wake her up._

_Yukino let out a groan and opened her eyes._

_"Kumiko, why did you wake me up?", she asked wearily._

_Then she realized where they were and began to panic._

_"Where are we? Where are the others?"_

_"I don't know. My brother is also missing.", Kumiko answered._

_Then through what seemed to be loudspeakers came a voice._

_"Welcome and good morning you lot. You most probably wonder where you are and why you are here. You are in a special facility and take part in the Uranus Project. Of course you don't know what that is and you don't need to."_

_At that the children began to get nervous._

_AIM jammer got activated and scientists walked in, taking children with them._

_After a while it was Kumiko's turn._

_She got lead through the door to another room where a table with strange things attached stood._

_The scientists laid her on the table and fixated her._

_A helmet got put on her head._

_"Beginning input sequence", someone announced and Kumiko felt pain._

_A pain so big it felt like her brain exploded, her veins and muscles ruptured and her nerves burned like fire._

_She screamed in agony._

_After the process, which felt like a hours to Kumiko, was finished, she got carried back in the room she and the others were in._

_Kumiko got brought back and after some time past Yukino also got brought back and laid beside her._

_"Yukino, are you alright?", she asked with a weak voice, her body shaking and her face twisted from the pain._

_"I think so, but the pain...", came the answer from the other girl who was crying._

_Kumiko then saw something that she never wanted to see: Blood began to flow out of Yukino's ears and eyes and she began to cough it up._

_"YUKINO? WHAT IS WITH YOU? YUKINO!", she yelled, tears starting to come out of her eyes, and looked at her friend, too weak to get to her._

_Shortly after that Yukino stopped moving._

_Kumiko cried, being broken; physically, mentally._

_The whole process got repeated every following day... and repeated... and repeated..._

***FLASHBACK END***

Everyone was silent and looked at Kumiko with sad eyes except Birdway who knew that already and didn't feel much about it..

" My ability now works through energy manipulation and control. The aim was to make a esper with the same ability as yours, Touma-san. The ability to counter other abilities. You are the original this Project had as 'blueprint'. "

At that statement Touma froze in shock.

"After 4 years the repetitions ended and only twelve, including me, survived. But the scientists weren't satisfied with the result: We couldn't react automatically to incoming attacks. So we got send to another Project, the Dark May Project."

"To get Accelerator's super Auto-Defense.", Kinuhata stated.

"Correct.", said Kumiko and continued her story.

"It was the same procedure as the Uranus Project. But because the children in the Dark May Project were still around 6 years old they needed a person to care for them, to help them. I made myself this person and helped them as much as I could. But the rest of the Uranus Project died with a couple of others from the Dark May Project. After a month It got decided to bring me away, so I helped them one last time. I made it possible for Umidori to end the project through sabotaging the AIM jammer suppressing her."

Kumiko paused for a moment and then told her story further.

"For around 2 years I got trained to develop Anti-AIM properties for my ability. Then the worst out of the three projects came, the 'Orion Project'. I got to chose because at that point they couldn't do much to control me: Either let the experiment be conducted on me or they will do the experiment with my brother. I chose the former."

***FLASHBACK ***

_Kumiko got brought through multiple doors to a room. In the room was a operation table with joists for arms and legs._

_"Please lay down here so we can begin the experiment.", a scientist ordered._

_Kumiko, without saying anything, did as told and laid down on the table._

_She got fixated whilst another scientist brought in a container._

_After she was completely fixated the scientist opened the container and pulled out a prism._

_It got placed midair over her chest where it levitated._

_Then it got shot at with a energy beam._

_The prism began to spin faster and faster._

_Suddenly it went down and slipped in her chest._

_Whilst the whole process of subsiding the pain she felt was unbearable._

_Kumiko screamed and screamed in agony._

_Even after the subsiding of the prism was over she still felt the pain._

_Shortly she lost conscious._

***FLASHBACK END***

"I didn't know what they did to me at that time. After I woke up I felt something was different. I felt... perfect, complete. Not even close to the feeling of happiness, love or something like that. Just... inhuman. But I didn't become what they wanted, I was still half human.", Kumiko told.

"So they went against the contract they had with me and took my brother, bringing him in the same Project. And with my brother... it worked. They succeeded before I could safe him."

Everyone was silent.

"But it didn't stop. After I saved him, my brother got hunt because of his now special body. To protect him I made a 'contract with the devil', as you could say. For the protection this person provided I needed to become the person's hit man with the code name 'Valkyrie' and so I killed persons that got marked by said person. You can say what you want about me killing people, I did it to protect my brother, even if it may be wrong.", Kumiko finished her telling.

"I think what you did was wrong. But you did it for your brother, a member of your family, so it is understandable.", Touma stated and the others nodded in agreement.

"Kinuhata and I need to go now, helping Mugino with shopping. If we not go now she will come and drag us back. ", informed Takitsubo and she went with Kinuhata out of the room.

"So, enough of the story telling. Why is Leivinia here?", Kumiko asked after the two left.

"I'm here because we need to plan something.", Leivinia answered.

"GREMLIN, right?", guessed Kumiko.

"Yeah. From where do you know that name?", Touma asked surprised.

"Hello?! I was Valkyrie. Of course I know from organizations like that.", she answered in a matter-of-factly way while pointing with a finger at herself.

"That sounds right.", Touma said sheepishly.

"Thought so. Now back to the planning: What are you about to do?", she asked the other three.

"We are going to Hawaii. It seems that GREMLIN plans something big."

"Interesting, so they start now... Touma, when you are in Hawaii, don't let yourself be captured.", Kumiko warned him.

"Why should they want to capture me? Because of Imagine breaker?"

"That is something I'm going to tell you later. It's better that way, trust me."

Birdway appeared to know it also and seemingly agreed with Kumiko's decision.

"Are you going with us? I mean, that would be a Level 5 more, right?", Hamazura asked her hopefully because it would make the whole thing easier for them.

"No, I'm not coming with you. I have another destination then you to go to.", Kumiko replied.

"Where are you going?"

I'm going to England. And I take Gunha with me.", she declared.

"Why England? And why are you taking Gunha with you?", asked Hamazura confused.

"To the 'why England', there are two things I need to investigate and deal with. Firstly, I found a file that says there is a high probability that GREMLIN will be there and I need some information plus aiding the local faction to stop GREMLIN. And the second is that there is a person I need to talk too. The 'why Gunha' is fairly easy to answer: Who except me can control him without physical methods? Right, Gunha~?", she enumerated and smiled at Gunha who in response gulped.

"And what is with your brother?", Touma asked concerned.

"At the moment he stays with a friend of mine. I really want to be the one who looks after him, but this matter is more important right now.", she answered.

"Then it's decided. We go to Hawaii while you and #7 are going to England.", Birdway ended the talking, not wanting to share a room with Kumiko any longer.

"Let's do it that way. I need to go now, still need to do something different, but before I do that: Here is my number. Call me if things get worse for you.", she said and gave Touma a piece of paper.

Kumiko stood up and with a "bye" she was gone, dragging Gunha with her in the process.

After a while Touma asked the other two who were still in his room:"Do you think this duo will blow up a city?"

Birdway and Hamazura just nodded.

'Fokou-da...'

* * *

Kumiko and Gunha walked along the street.

"Listen, Gunha: I don't know if I should tell you that, but where we are going to need to speak English. Now my question is: Can you even speak English?", Kumiko asked him.

"You bet! I needed English to talk with a person so I used my guts to learn it!"

At that she looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"With a book?"

"No. With guts!", he answered like it was a normal occurrence.

Kumiko groaned and facepalmed.

"Why did I even ask?", she muttered to herself.

'He is not explainable! Definitely!'

Gunha looked at her confused.

"Have you a headache?"

"No, I don't.", she sighed and moved her hand from her face and grabbed her cell phone.

Kumiko dialed a number and waited untill the call got accepted.

"Hai~ho, Nee-tan~! What is it that you need?"

A vain popped up on her forehead.

"Percy, how many times do I need to repeat myself: Never use this creepy way of speaking when you talk to me."

"Sorry, Sorry. I speak like that to hide myself and It kind of became a part of me."

From his voice you could hear that he was definitely not sorry.

"Huh... whatever. Listen, you sorry excuse for a man: I will be in England for a not set period of time. Watch over my brother for me. And if one of your... specialties... rub off on him, I will personally drag you through a meat chopper."

The person on the other end gulped.

"Roger.", came the answer after a few seconds.

Kumiko, satisfied with the outcome ended the call with a "bye" and dialed a new number.

"Hello, principal? Here is Kurokami Kumiko. I need a vacation, there is something I need to do in England. Don't worry, I have the perfect replacement for the teaching role while I'm gone. I won't be long away, maybe a week. Yes, I accept not getting any payment for the time I'm gone. Thank you, principal. I wish you a nice day. Bye.", and with that Kumiko ended the second call and put her phone back in her pocket.

She noticed Gunha looking at her.

"What?", Kumiko asked him.

"Do you know you could be a general with your guts?", he asked her.

"Ah, just let it be. And I am not such a person: I don't order everyone around as it pleases me."

Gunha just smiled at her and said nothing.

"I'm really not like that!"

* * *

**This is the start of a new arc, hope you liked it! As you already saw it will play in the same time as the Hawaii accident.**  
**It is going to be named 'Britannia arc' as you could see in the chapter selection. ****About the power output of Kumiko, I think it is acceptable if you take into account that she could fight with accelerator on even grounds when she was still a hybrid.**

**Personally, I'm not really satisfied with this chapter, but at the same time I don't have a plan at the moment how to improve it, so live with it until I update this chapter. Maybe...**

**With that I'm out, bye!**


	9. Britannia Arc: Chapter 2

**Well... hello guys. It was a somewhat long time since I uploaded a chapter. Normally I would say 'sorry, but I couldn't do it earlier because...' and then list up a couple excuses, but this time I don't really have some. I was just lazy. And had over things to do. Mostly playing videogames... and reading... and sleeping.**

**But hey, here is the next chapter! Enjoy it!**

**I do not own 'To aru majutsu no index', only my OCs!**

_Chapter 2: the misguided light_

"This place has guts!", a Boy yelled while walking over a street in London.

"Shut up, Idiot! Or do you want to announce 'we are here, please attack us'?", hissed the girl walking next to him and hit him on the back of his head.

"Didn't you say you use nothing physical? How gutless, Kumiko!", exclaimed the boy.

"Normally I wouldn't do it. But your little acts at both airports and in the plane have near completely wrecked my nerves."

From the passersby's point of view this duo seemed a little odd, some wondered what two foreign teenagers did alone in London.

"First we need to check in a hotel.", she began, trying to calm down her nerves which got strained from the trials she had thanks to Gunha.

"Then let's go!", the boy exclaimed and dragged her along the streets.

After some seconds in which Kumiko complained he stopped and asked: "Where exactly is this place?"

'Seriously, he is such a...', she thought and answered sighing, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder:"Other direction."

"Ohh... Let's go with guts!", Gunha said and went in the other direction, still dragging her with him.

'Calm down girl, he isn't doing it on purpose...', Kumiko tried to remain calm.

Some hundred meters further and Gunha asking her for direction multiple times they finally arrived at the hotel.

"Listen up, Gunha: I need to meet up with a friend. You are going to rent _one_ room with _two_ separate beds for us and then come after me. Do not use your ability in some way, don't do anything outside the order I gave you. Or else...", Kumiko let the last part open, giving him a piece of paper with the address of her friend on it.

His eyes widened in fear and he nodded fast multiple times, taking it.

"Good, good. 'till later!", she bid farewell and walked away, leaving an in fear frozen Gunha behind.

'Let's see if she is at that place.', was Kumiko's thought as she wandered towards her destination, hoping it would be so or she would need to collect in Gunha.

* * *

After some time she arrived at a bar with the letters 'New Light' above the entry.

Kumiko knocked and waited for a response. The door opened and in the frame stood no one less than Lessar.

Kumiko smiled at her.

Lessar returned the smile.

Both stood for a few seconds like that.

Lessar began to sweat and nervousness started to let the smile crumble.

"Hi, Les~sar~chan.", Kumiko cheerfully greeted.

For her that was the signal. She sprinted inside and yelled loudly:

"RUN! THE SPANKBRINGER CAME!"

Kumiko just followed her, ignoring the nickname she got.

Inside the local were three out of the four girls.

Lessar, who build up a provisional barricade and hide behind it with a Steel Glove ready to strike, Lancis, who laid lazily on a sofa and read some magazine, and Bayloupe, who walked towards her with a happy expression on her face.

"Nice to see you."

"Good to see you too, Bay-chan.", Kumiko replied and hugged her.

"I won't lose this name anytime soon, right?"

"Nope, not until I die."

"Thought so...", Bayloupe sighed and detracted herself out of the hug.

"Why are you here, Spankbringer?", came a question from Lessar.

"Information I need and even some I will give you. And why do call me 'Spankbringer'?", Kumiko asked with a eyebrow raised questionably.

"You made my life harder! You were the one who brought Bayloupe the idea of spanking when she is angry at me!", Lessar replied angrily.

"You actually followed my advice?", she asked Bayloupe.

"Yeah, she screwed up badly one time so I spanked her.", the girl said, seeming satisfied with it.

"Ass?", Kumiko asked.

"Ass. And the dump actions of Lessar are getting lesser and lesser."

She gave Bayloupe a thumps up.

"See, I told you it would work."

"You demon. Do you know how long my bottom is red after Bayloupe is done?", Lessar stared angrily at her.

"A day?"

"A WEEK!"

Kumiko looked at Bayloupe with something like respect.

"That is some spanking power..."

Lessar glared at her but didn't say anything.

"Ok, that is enough talk about spanking. You said you need information?", Bayloupe asked, bringing the conversation in a different direction.

"Jep, I did. Information about GREMLIN to be precise."

"But don't you already have access to such information? You know, agent of the board of directors and all?", Lessar asked confused.

"No, because I am no agent anymore."

"You got fired?", Lessar asked with mirth in her voice.

"Yeah, and I'm happy about it. Try to imagine working for a person worse than Stuart, then multiply it by ten.", Kumiko said, successfully crushing Lessar's attempt at making fun of her.

"And what exactly do you want to know about them? And what is with payment?"

"The names of some important members. And, which is more important, their type of magic. I know they lean on the Nordic mythology, but I don't really know who with what is in charge of specific operation zones. And about the payment, I have information that might interest you.", Kumiko said the last part with a smirk.

"Well, about the members: We know that a person named Othinus is in charge of all operations, which get controlled by the chiefs-in-charge. We think that whole GREMLIN gets controlled by her. About her magic relation, we are not quite sure: Either Tyr or Odin.", Bayloupe informed her, leaving Lessar out of the loop before she could say something stupid.

"Othinus, huh? Somewhere I heard this name before...", Kumiko thought out loudly, rubbing her chin.

"Strong magician, rumors saying she became a magic god."

"Shit! That would make the whole thing harder that it already is."

Before Kumiko could let lose a huge barrage of curses the door slammed open and in the frame stood Gunha.

"Mission accomplished, Kumiko!", he exclaimed loudly and drew all eyes at him.

"Who is that? Your boyfriend?", Lessar asked, surprised by the sudden appearance.

"What the...? Why do all think he is my boyfriend the moment he appears?". Kumiko questioned, a little stuttering.

"You seem to be like butter and bread.", Lancis pointed out her opinion, speaking up for the first time.

"You gotta be kidding me...", Kumiko sighed loudly, massaging her temple.

"But we are friends.", Gunha pointed out, seemingly not understanding what was going on.

"So you are together.", Lessar smirked at her, mirth now seeming to ooze off her.

Kumiko began to get nervous.

"No, we are just friends, nothing more."

"But we already bonded with guts; We are more than friends!", Gunha exclaimed.

This caused a chain reaction: Bayloupe smirked, Lacis eyes widened in shock and Lessar looked flabbergasted at Kumiko with mouth open.

Said redhead's face seemed to try to imitate her hair color with huge success.

"You two already have advanced to this stage?! I really shouldn't take you lightly.", Lessar said to her, still the same expression on her face.

"NONONONO! We didn't do something like that and we are in no such relationship! What he mean with bonding is something completely different then what you think!"

"Ara ara, that isn't nice of you, to deny to have done such an act in front of the person you did it with. Think about his feelings."

"Stop misinterpret in what he is saying and stop acting out of your character!", Kumiko almost screamed at this point, becoming even redder which is almost impossible. "And what he called bonding was to beat some assholes into the ground. Together."

"That's right! We are best friends! But what do you thought bonding i...", Gunha didn't come further as Kumiko's hand slapped on his mouth, successful silencing him. She leaned closer towards him.

"You say another word about this topic in the next five minutes and I send you personally flying to Hawaii.", she hissed him in his ear in a sickly sweet tone.

'Then you are not my responsibility anymore.', Kumiko thought, grinning to herself and backing away.

Gunha in response trembled in fear and nodded frantically.

Bayloupe leaned towards Kumiko, then whispering in her ear:"Something happened? You losing it faster than usual."

"Just the most nerve wrecking travel I had so far in my life."

Bayloupe smirked at her.

"You need to tell me sometime."

"Later, promise."

Kumiko moved away from Gunha and Bayloupe, relieved that he didn't say anything about that topic anymore.

"So, after we cleared the misunderstanding, let's continue with me getting the information I want and after that, Lessar~chan:", she said and smiled with eyes closed a sinster smile at Lessar.

"It will be spanking time."

Lessar paled and backed away slowly, but got held firmly by her left shoulder from Bayloupe who too smirked at her.

"Don't worry, it won't be that bad.", she reassured her though her voice let to believe she didn't think it herself.

"Back to topic: We have a person that might be a magic god and...", Kumiko started.

"Many who lean themselves at gods of the Nordic mythology or the mythology itself plus some from the science side.", Bayloupe finished, sounding a little concerned.

"That is going to be a shit storm."

"Watch your language, please."

"Sorry, my tongue slipped."

"You don't mean it, do you?"

"No, I do not."

Bayloupe sighed, shaking her head slowly.

"_But when two of the criteria are correct, then we might have already won. So, in that case we just need to ensure there are minimal casualties..._", Kumiko mused barely hearable and rubbed her chin in thought.

"Wait, what?", Lessar asked, not really understanding the meaning of what she said.

"AH, did I say it out loud? Don't worry, nothing serious. Just a silly thought of mine.", she reassured the younger girl, giving her a smile.

The others(except Gunha) looked at her suspiciously but didn't say anything anymore.

"Is there still more, or was that all?", Kumiko asked to change the course of the conversation, a little nervous.

"Well, we found out some locations of operation bases around the globe.", Bayloupe explained a little irritated, pulling and spreading out a map and marked different locations, under them ones in Germany, America, Vietnam and Russia.

"That is quite the number of bases.", Kumiko whistled in a appraising tone. Every other girl in the room looked at her incredulously.

"What? It is a big a feat if you manage to build and hold so many bases, scattered across the world. And that against every other organization that hates them. Which are quite a lot... if not even the rest of the world.", she explained, seeming to not know what was wrong with complementing the enemy.

That statement lead to raising of eyebrows and twitching eyes.

New light shared the same thought: 'It isn't a thing to complement when enemies are a threat big enough to hold their own against the world.'

After a awkward moment of Kumiko receiving glares Bayloupe broke the silence.

"Okaaayy. Even though this somewhat strange situation is rather interesting, I think that we should get the show on the roll. You said you have information that are... interesting for us, haven't you?"

With that single mentioning everyone changed back to a more composed and businesslike manner.

"I have some information that are indicating that GREMLIN will have a operation in England around this week. And knowing them it won't be very pretty.", Kumiko informed them, leaving them all speechless.

"Are you sure?", Bayloupe asked in a heavy voice, concern spiking.

"I am. Got it from the information network belonging to the board of directors when I was still an agent: A 99 percent chance for the event to happen."

"But we have a Saint here. And Nececcarius' HQ. They can't cause much damage, can they?", Lessar demurred, hoping it would be true.

"That would be a nice change. But too bad: If they send a strong team, and giving the oppositions to them like you listed is a high chance, it would ensure that victory for England is no guaranty. And they send, apparently, a rather well known alchemist to lead the whole operation. A guy called Lucius Schwarzeiche , coming straight from their forces in Germany."

"Good god...", Bayloupe muttered, a heavy mine forming on the faces of the New Light members. She already heard what this man was capable of, and it did no good thing for their chances for success.

"But don't worry, I will help you. Friends stick together and help each other, right?", Kumiko tilted her head slightly to the right and smiled at them so brightly she seemed to radiate of a wave of light.

'She is madcap.'

'She is a goddess.'

'I want her as big sister.'

After some seconds the 'light' faded and the others managed to collect their thoughts.

"But, to win this battle for sure, we need Necessarius on our side. Joy.", concluded Kumiko, an air of gloom hanging around her.

"It shouldn't be that bad..."

"You have no idea. Stuart and I are almost at war."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing big... just blew up some magic side property."

Bayloupe raised a eyebrow in response.

"And you wonder why she isn't on good terms with you?"

"It wasn't my fault! Two saints are not really a thing where you can be discrete...", Kumiko muttered defiantly, suddenly finding the ceiling very interesting to look at.

"Tw-two saints? At the same time?"

"Yeah, killed one of them and beat down the other. Too bad it was Kanzaki Kaori. And the building I blew up while fighting them... let's just say it was fairly important. Nececcarius didn't take that lightly." she explained, twitching under the stares she received now.

"What did you blow up?", Bayloupe asked, despite fearing the answer.

***muttermutter***

"I didn't quite catch that."

"An important telesma research facility at the north pole."

Silence. The only exception was the sharp breathing from every New Light member. Finally, after some seconds that seemed to be hours, all three shouted in unison:"YOU DID WHAT?"

"For my defense, they attacked first."

"Let me get this straight: You destroyed a very, very important research facility.", Bayloupe said, her face twitching.

A nod from Kumiko.

"Because the saints attacked you while being there, for..."

"Spying for AC.", came the short answer.

"For spying. Plus You killed one of them." Another nod.

"And beaten another down. And in that whole process you killed nearly all staff member in that facility when you, as you said, blew it up."

A nod for confirmation.

"And I guess the research results are destroyed too."

"Well, technically they are not."

"What does that mean?"

"Deposited in academy city?"

"...You stole them?"

"Stealing is such a hard word; I prefer the term 'taking without asking'."

Bayloupe rubbed her temples and groaned.

"Why do you make everything worse than it already is?"

Gunha patted her on the back, smiling at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry, there are people so gutless that they do things even worse."

Kumiko blinked at him, not wanting to believe what he said.

'He may be the biggest hypocrite I met so far.'

"Thanks. Good to know that you are friendlier than your girlfriend.", Bayloupe teased, smiling back.

A growl that startled everyone sounded in the room, origin Kumiko. They diverted their attention towards her. Kumiko's face twitched, multiple veins pooped up and her hair seemed to defy gravity.

"I will explain it one more time:", she hissed, resulting in everyone backing away slowly.

"**He**"

She took a step in their direction.

"**is**"

Another step. Everyone gulped.

'Oh shit!'

"**NOT MY BOYFRIEND!**", Kumiko roared, heating the whole room up and suddenly appeared bigger than she really is.

Everyone thought the same as she seemed to tower over them.

'We took it to far.'

Kumiko's gaze wandered through the room and stopped as she fixated it on Lessar.

"I remember that I still owe you a spanking, Lessar-chan."

Lessar wasted no time and tried to run, but got gripped by the others.

They send her a 'better you than us'-look. At that moment Lessar thought only one thing and one thing only: 'You backstabbing traitors!'

"Soo, Lessar...", the spoken words send Lessar in a world of fear.

She slowly shifted her gaze towards Kumiko who massaged her left hand.

"It's time for punishment."

She gulped and everyone in that room learned a lesson for life:

Never, ever get on Kumiko's bad side.

A little later screams of pain and sounds of slapping filled the building.

* * *

"Haaaa, now I can think straight again.", Kumiko, now relieved and calmed down, said and stretched her arms while walking down the street, a wide smile plastered on her face.

Gunha followed a meter behind her, trying to forget the gruesome pictures of what happened in the bar to Lessar.

"So, next stop would be... Necessarius.", she muttered, gloom hanging around her.

"It won't be so bad.", Gunha said, trying to lift her mood.

"You have no idea.", Kumiko answered with head hanging down. The rest of the walk towards their destination was walked in awkward silence.

After around half a hour they stood in front of a big building.

"This is it. St. George Cathedral", Kumiko sighed, just standing there and was seemingly not interested in entering the building.

"Are we not going in?", Gunha asked her, confused.

"I don't really want to." A pause.

"So... we are not going in?"

Kumiko sighed again."I said I don't want to and truth be told, If I were to chose between taking on an aircraft carrier or talking with that person now, I would chose the carrier every time. But too bad I can't call hut."

She started to walk towards the double door with him in following but stopped in her tracks and held out a arm, stopping him too.

"Before we bring it behind us, I must warn you: No sudden movements, no talking when unquestioned, and most of all: Try to survive."

Gunha signaled her that he understood by giving her a thumps up.

Both walked towards the door, nodded to each other and pushed, each one wing, and walked in.

The inside was darker than one thought. A chill went down Gunha's spine and he felt it. Something was there.

Kumiko appeared to also notice it.

"This raging fury, this killing intent;"

One could hear footsteps which got louder and louder. Both teenagers made themselves ready.

"Something is coming."

And with that words a cascade of nuns, priests and persons that looked normal, a oddity in a place and group like that, ran at them with weapons ready and yelling a battle cry.

They started their attacks at them. Sword swings, fireballs, everything they had in their repertoire.

Kumiko's reaction was... doing nothing and let her ability handle it.

A sword to the head; blocked.

A fireball to the groin; blocked.

Gunha on the other hand dodged the attacks with movements that would be just embarrassing for every other person to do.

A girl tried to stab her with a trident, surrounded by some kind of blue shroud, but her attack got halted the moment it would connect.

"How did you...?"

For a moment the girls eyes widened a little before she jumped back and every other attacker paused too.

"Care to explain why I get attacked by an angry mob the moment I step through the door? I have expected to get bombarded with insults by that witch, but I never expected such a... physical confrontation.", Kumiko demanded, looking at them with a scowl meant for little children who didn't behave.

"We are going to revenge priestess-sama!", the girl with the trident answered, now drawing the attention of Kumiko.

"I know you from somewhere... what was it again? Itsuwa, I believe. Yeah, Itsuwa. You were the one girl who stopped me when I was about to kill Kanzaki. So tell me, what is the meaning of this? I didn't kill her, and please say that is no such silly thing as pride.", with the last sentence her voice and eyes became cold and the atmosphere around her became dangerous, something seemed to twirl around her.

All magicians went a cold shiver down their spine and looked at her in fear. Itsuwa couldn't help but feel the same she felt in Avignon.

At that moment Kumiko seemed to be something unreachable for them, a being where it wasn't a question of how you fought or won against it but how you survived it.

"Kumiko", Gunha said slowly, grabbing her shoulder. She didn't react and still stared coldly at Itsuwa.

"Kumiko", this time he said it with more force, but got still no reaction and the amount of the twirling doubled.

"**KUMIKO, STOP!**", he yelled, generating a huge amount of Energy which gathered around the two of them, letting the space around both look like sugar water. It literally ate the something that twirled around Kumiko.

For Kumiko that energy was comfortable and warm, like a ocean of cushions she sunk in. The coldness in her eyes slowly faded away and was replaced through warmth, the tenseness in the air dropped and everyone's tenseness with it.

She blinked twice and then receded to her normal self. Gunha moved his hand away and looked at Kumiko in a gauging way. She tilted her head slightly towards him and smiled.

"Thanks. It's still kinda hard to control emotions."

"Don't worry, I just needed to inject some guts into you."

They both redirected their attention back towards the mob who stared at them wide eyed.

"I'm sorry that I let that side out, normally one doesn't see it. But even though we could stay here all day I must inform you that I want to meet with Stuart, as in now."

"And why should we let you through?", Itsuwa asked sullen.

"Because I asked nicely and we all know that we", Kumiko pointed at her and Gunha, "could very well force our way through you. But we don't do it because we are nice people. And by the way: I'm not Valkyrie anymore, so I'm not affiliated with that bastard."

"Then why are you here?", a male voice sounded. The owner of that voice came in view as he walked through the mob. He had red, shoulder long hair and a cigarette in his mouth.

"AH, the oversized middle schooler. Nice to see you again, Stiyl!", Kumiko greeted him with faked happiness in her voice.

A vein popped up on Stiyl's forehead and he gritted his teeth together.

"You still didn't answer my question; What do you want?"

" I have Information for you regarding GREMLIN."

That caused an reaction. Every member of Nececcarius looked at her as if she was a ghost.

"And how do we know we can trust you?", Stiyl asked her after a telepathic communication, suspicion showing itself in his eyes.

"You can't. You just need to trust me on this one. But to give you something to work with: I only lie if it benefits in protecting my brother, which isn't the case now."

Stiyl looked at her doubtfully, thinking about if trusting her would be a wise decision. After some seconds and a talk with the one on the other side of the telepathic line decision was made and he motioned her to follow.

"Alright, I will bring you to the archbishop. This way, as you already know."

Protests were yelled but Stiyl cut them down with a single "She wants to talk to her."

And with that he turned around and walked away, not paying her another look.

"Wow, this place is as nice and welcoming to visitors as it used to be.", Kumiko sarcastically commented whilst following him, behind her Gunha.

"You can't really expect us to invite you to a nice talk with tea and cake. Not after what you did."

"That accident was over a year in the past."

"No, I talk about something that happened recently. We send a member of Nececcarius on a joint mission. He didn't come back in a state we... expected."

"And what would that be? You know, out of faked curiosity."

"A day before we got a barrel filled what appeared to be molten flesh. Any guesses?"

Kumiko looked guiltily at him, grief displaying in her face. She always wondered all the time since she heard the news where this fellow of the group went missing. Or, to be precise, the puddle he became. Kumiko bit on her under lip.

"Yeah, that's my handwork. I'm sorry. But at the same time, it was your fault too."

Stiyl whirled around , rage showing itself on his face.

"Care to explain why we are at fault too? I do believe it was you who melted him."

"You were the ones who send him inside Academy City and let him attack and try to subdue Kamijou Touma, a imperative asset for the Super Intend. You were the ones to send him to his death; The question is, did you know it was a suicide mission, or not.", she calmly replied.

"I didn't.", he said, his voices seeped fury. Styil turned around and continued his walk.

"What a coincidence. Ten bucks the witch knew it and send him never less?", Kumiko asked, disgusted by only the thought of it. She followed him in his tracks.

"That is no bet. It's a certainty."

As they walked down the corridor, they suddenly heard a shout.

"NANASEN!"

Something flew towards Kumiko with a great velocity, ripping the ground on its way. Before it could shredder her to pieces, it stopped and revealed itself as metal strings.

Kumiko sighed again, needed to do it too often for her taste.

"It's nice to see you too, Kaori. But seriously, do you need to choose a physical greeting like that?"

The older girl ignored Kumiko and looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, come on. If that is still about the thing at the north pole, I will throw up."

She got no reaction, Kaori still resumed in her staring. After some moments, Kumiko decided to make a more physical approach too. She grabbed one of the strings and pulled. Stiyl's eyes widened in shock and his body froze in his tracks, only able to watch the event in fornt of his eyes to unfold.

The pull send Kaori flying towards the younger girl who brought up a arm, ready to strike. Time seemed to slow down as she saw Kumiko coming nearer and nearer. She managed to get her feet on the ground again but still slid towards Kumiko. Kaori stopped when she was in arms reach and, unable to react to the other girl's action, Kumiko's arm went down and... hit her softly with the side of her hand on the head.

"Bad kitten."

Stiyl and Kaori blinked perplex alike and tried to process what happened just now. Kumiko repeated it and again a soft chop landed on the bigger girl's head.

"Bad kitten."

Kaori, after finally getting back to her Zen, jumped back and stared at Kumiko dumbfounded.

"Why did you do that?"

"Too ease the mood, of course.", Kumiko answered and showed her a smile. Again she got no reaction. Deciding it was just a waste of time to do a stare showdown now, Kumiko switched to a serious voice and spoke up.

"Listen, Kaori: I know why you react like that. I can even understand this behavior. I really do. I too would react like that if a person who killed friends of mine stood directly in front of me. But you also need to understand that I did what I did to achieve my goal, not because I had fun while doing it. And that I haven't had a choice in that matter."

That seemed to calm Kaori slightly down but she still had a tense facial expression. Kumiko turned towards Stiyl and motioned him to continue the walk.

They stopped in front of a big door. Styil faced Kumiko and spoke to her.

"I must ask you to leave him", he pointed at Gunha "behind. She only agreed to meet you. And I need to inform you that if you do a wrong move we will attack you."

He left the 'and kill you.' unspoken.

"Of course. And to the 'attack you'-part;", Kumiko answered while walking past him towards the door "Try it."

Then she opened the door and entered the room. The room was big and illuminated by the light of the sun shining through the giant windows on the back side. The windows were typical windows found in a church, decorated and colored with many pictures of the Catholic religion.

Stiyl closed the door behind her. In front of the windows sat Laura Stuart, archbishop and leader of Nececcarius, on a chair at a table filled with tea and cake. On the other side of the table stood another empty chair.

'So much about 'no tea and cake for you', huh?'

Kumiko neared herself the table silently with a fake smile plastered on her face. She got a fake smile back. Kumiko sat herself on the still empty chair and waited for the other woman to say something.

"It's nice to see you again, Kumiko-chan.", Stuart began in Japanese with a voice filled with faked happiness that practically screamed 'Hate you, Bitch'.

"It's definitely nice to see you again too. And Stuart, please: talk in English, your way of speaking Japanese is just silly.", Kumiko replied letting the smile on her face, having the hidden message 'fuck you' in her sentence.

"OH, I Didn't know my way of speaking was this... unfitting.", came the answer, now in English.

"There is no problem with it. You will just get weird stares from the sidelines, nothing serious. But as much as I want to talk with you about such a... important topic, I would really want to talk about the matter at hand."

"I see nothing wrong with that. You said you have information regarding GREMLIN?", Stuart asked and took a sip from her tea.

"You heard correct."

"And why do you think I don't know already what you want to say to me?" This damn woman wanted to pressure her. Kumiko tried her best to keep the smile where it belonged and her fist away from where it was meant to be.

"A feeling. A feeling which says that Crowly didn't tell everything to you. And that you network doesn't possess the information I can offer.", she responded, inwardly resisting the urge to insult her.

"Oh. Interesting, I suppose. But we both know you will not tell me it for free."

"Of course not. I'm no Samaritan. We both aren't."

"And what is it that you want?"

"To stop your attacks on Kamijou Touma. And that you stop the little plan you work on right now." Stuart's smile faded a little bit for the first time.

"That is a really big demand. Why shouldn't we do it?"

"Am I allowed to speak openly?" A nod.

"It simply won't work." The smile she possessed faded completely.

"And why do you think it won't work? You are no magician, so tell me; Where do you take that confidence that it won't work?"

"Because of its very nature. It's moving outside of what you can perceive, of what you can understand. To try and mess with it will not work."

"So you know what it is?" A eyebrow raised a that question. Kumiko looked at Stuart's passive face in a exaggerated way.

"Haven't you listen to me? Right now I can't do exactly that to a hundred percent. No one of us can. And when you ask that question you don't understand it yourself to such length, do you? Why do you even want to follow this plan then?"

"Because it might be a path to salvation."

Kumiko, now without any modesty, looked at her as if she had a second head grown.

"Did you say 'Might' just now? You seriously want to tell me that you risk such things because of a single 'might'?"

"I am willing to take that gamble."

"So you are not backing down?"

"I am afraid not."

Fury. Hot, burning fury raged in her. Every ounce self restraint was lost, every composure she possessed faded away when this sentence was spoken. Around them the basic physical rules seemed to be canceled out, nothing like that mattered at the moment. Then Kumiko spoke up, eying Stuart with hot rage.

"You are 'willing to take that gamble'? Do you even now in the slightest what taking it would mean? I warned you about it. I tried to get you away from that idea. And you come up with that, simply continuing what you started? Not even considering what I said? You have no idea what you are about to do. I was connected. I know the truth, even if my knowledge is only on a rudimentary level. And you say to me in your blissful naivety that you still want to continue? Giving me that answer in your complete arrogance?"

During that entire speech Stuart looked at her with no emotion showing on her face. Stiyl, Kaori and multiple other members of Nececcarius ran in the room and looked wide eyed at the demon standing in the middle of the anomaly.

"You know what...", Kumiko began and the anomaly vanished slowly.

"This deal is blown. Forget the information. Try to safe your beloved England. But remember what I said: When you succeed with this plan of yours, then there is no salvation. Not for **you**, not for **England** and most of all not for **humanity**."

And with that she stormed out of the room and pulled Gunha with her in the process.

No one dared to stop her.

* * *

**That was it with this chapter!**

**Some of you may have already notived it, but I made references to other animes. Hehehe... I'm so evil.**

**And about the whole relationship thing: Sargent Crash, applause to you, you have successfully infected my brain with that idea. Congratulations!**

**And with that:**

**Don't forget to leave something behind and...**

**I'm out! Bye!**


	10. Britannia Arc: Chapter 3

**I'm back, guys! And with me the next chapter! For the one's who question themselves about the cover for the story shown above in it's meaned place, then yes: I made it! It was a boring day in school about things I already knew and understood and so I began the epic drawing of this epic cover... Ok, Maybe not the best of the best and not colored BUT that will come[Now imagine me patting myself on my shoulder; Pathetic, but hey, why not?].**

**Another things that are interesting in the moment? I guess that with that chapter and the reaction it will cause(you reading it) I will hit 3000+ VIEWS! When this is no thing to celebrate I don't know what is! And because of that: Thanks, guys! Thanks for reading it and helping me along my way to get better in writting. And a special thanks to my brother_in_connection(you know to what this refers) for motivating me and for the reviews/feedbacks he wrote which feed my brain to breed out new ideas for this story: Sargent Crash! Really, thank you very much.**

**But know the whole comments and other things from me end and the story continues! Enjoy!**

**I do not own 'To aru majutsu no Index, only my OCs!'**

_Chapter 3: The state of the light_

Kumiko was in a bottomless depression. Not the kind where you are depressed because your ice cream melted while you talked with a friend. Nor the kind of depressed for getting a D in a test when you knew you could have done better. The depression she felt was on the same level as 'the last day before the marriage the other broke up the betrothal for another one'.

Right now she was sitting in a chair in the bar she previously met up with New Light, holding her head with both hands and groaned now and then. In her head she asked herself again and again how she could be this dumb. The idiocy in her action was far out of the norm. This amount of dumbness shouldn't be allowed.

The others looked at her with a mild expression. They heard the explanation of what had happened by now and thought the same, but didn't voice it out. Bayloupe felt with her and patted her on her shoulder but inwardly she was suspicious. Kumiko acted the whole time so... different. Blushing, getting worked up over something trivial or losing her cool when being in such a important meeting. That was far from her normal rather composed self.

"How could I be so moronic?", Kumiko asked no one in particular between her groans.

"Don't worry about it.", Lessar reassured her, hiding behind the sofa Lancis still laid on. The only difference from the first situation was that Lancis haven't had her book this time.

"You just made it harder for all of us."

Bayloupe glared, promising Lessar another walk through hell. Kumiko depression level now was not a nice thing to watch, they didn't need one who was at the deepest possible bottom of depression.

"Stop talking, Lessar. You're not helping. At all."

Said girl sewed her mouth shut and started sulking on her chair. She didn't want to risk another spanking. Not after the one she received from Kumiko. That she didn't even deserved! It wasn't Lessar that said it!

Gunha sat on another chair opposite from Kumiko, looking to be at thought.

"You know, Kumiko...", he began at which she looked at him. Seeing him frown in his thoughts somewhat pulled her out of her misery and occupied her mind with the question if Gunha really is thinking or if he is just acting like he was.

"It wasn't your fault, I think. Since I can remember you acted most of the time with guts. And I do believe that you shouldn't blame yourself like that."

She looked at him now in a different light. To see the day he acted so mature and amicably in a intelligent way by considering her mood and helping her in times like that, Kumiko found a new emotion dwelling inside her: Admiration for him being able to do other things outside of being a clown. At that moment She could kiss him.

"And I thought of a way to solve this whole gutsy situation."

Everyone else perked up and looked at him expectably. He had now their undivided attention. Kumiko moved her hands away from her head and looked at him with something like hope.

"We should just beat up Necandis and inject them with some guts! After that they will help us with the guts we injected them!"

Complete silence. Kumiko blinked at him and tried to mentally accept the words he said. By doing that her thought process stopped for a short amount of time completely. Then she jumped at him and doing that pulled him to the ground. Kumiko grabbed his neck, strangled and shook him while being in a rather indecent position, namely on top of him legs spread.

"Give it back! Give the time back I admired you!", she shouted at him while minding her business called strangling.

The other girls looked at her amused and were somewhat relieved that the gloom faded away.

"Uhm, Kumiko...", Lessar began, finding new courage. Kumiko stopped the shaking and twisted her head slowly with loud, creepy cracking noises and in a strange way towards her, a dark shroud surrounding her body. Meanwhile Gunha's face turned bluer and bluer for every second passed.

"What?", she asked and stared at Lessar.

"I don't want to interrupt your fun time, but do you think that position is something you want should show in public?"

Kumiko looked down and then realized for the first time in which position she was in. she blushed hardly and hurriedly stood up. Problem was Kumiko chose to lose her grip the moment she stood up. So Gunha ended up shooting in the ceiling. His head decided to stay at his current position and so he was stuck there, his limbs hanging down.

"Don't worry about me.", came his muffled voice from the ceiling.

"It's cool here. I found some gutsy mice. It's a family!"

Kumiko couldn't help but laugh at the picture, all the frustration she had were away.

"Ah, come on. I pull you out.", she said after she stopped laughing and grabbed his left foot. Kumiko pulled and with a crack Gunha's head came out of the ceiling. He landed on his bottom in front of her. Kumiko sat down on her ankles and looked at him with a smile whilst he rubbed his rear.

"Sorry.", she apologized.

"Don't worry, my head isn't something that can be cracked with so little guts!"

"I talked with the mice."

"Oh."

Kumiko patted some dust from his shoulder and stood up. She turned towards New Light who, as she saw now, was looking at her with eyes wide and mouth open. Bayloupe spoke up after some seconds of recollecting.

"And who is going to pay for that?"

"It's not that bad.", Kumiko tried to talk herself out of it. She needed every ounce of money to pay back her damn bill. So she couldn't really spend much.

"There is a hole in the ceiling."

Kumiko looked up at the hole in a gauging way. It had around the same size as a medicine ball.

"It's not that big."

"A hole!"

"Fine fine! Just put it on a tab!", she gave herself defeated, throwing her hands up in the air. Internally she whined.

'The money is just getting more and more...'

Kumiko knew better than to think about it right now too much and closed this case for time, concentrating on the task at hand. She walked towards the television and turned it on, changing to a news channel.

' We got breaking News: Fights erupted around and in Hawaii. A unknown terrorist group attacked today. The local military began to fight against them but they provide resistance and the fighting is still continuing. Now we hear to a comment by the chief-in-charge...', the speaker told, pictures of the fighting showing on the screen.

The group watched it, completely focusing on the screen and the material shown. New determination shined in Kumiko's eyes and a plan slowly formed in her mind. If GREMLIN did something like that in Hawaii then they would high likely do the same in England for the same reason she thought they did in Hawaii: To make an example. And to hell Kumiko would let this happen here and give them a victory.

"Ok, let's focus on GREMLIN! We need to do preparations in order to fend the off. Chances are high that they want to repeat that here. Firstly, we need reconnaissance. Bayloupe, if you may?", Kumiko said in the round, bringing the others in a ready mode. Bayloupe smirked at her. Finally there was the Kumiko she knew: Determined, rational and always a plan up her sleeve.

"Roger, ma'am."

While others received their orders and started working on them she started to draw a circle. Once finished she wrote down runes along the edge of the circle and began to arrange the chairs around the circle, chair-backs pointing towards the circle. At last she draw two squares inside the circle, they touching the circle, in a way that they formed a hexagon.

Bayloupe moved in the middle of it and sat down. She closed her eyes and began to mutter something. Gunha looked at it questionably and turned then to Kumiko who looked over a map showing England. She began to mark certain areas and drew arrows and other indicators on it.

"Kumiko", he spoke up, seemingly completely confused about the scene shown to him.

"What is it?", she reacted, not looking up. Her thoughts drifted already to advantages they could attain through the terrain.

"What is she doing?"

"Building a temple to make a Hlidskialf."

"AHH! So what is this Hildegard exactly?"

"Not Hildegard. Hlidskialf. To explain it simply: it is known to be the throne Odin sits on and watches the nine worlds. By changing it so that it can be used by a human it makes it possible for said human to see everything in a specific radius.", Kumiko explained, averting her eyes for the first time from the map.

She looked him in the face and still saw confusion there.

"You... have no idea what I'm talking about, am I right?"

"Not a clue!", Gunha chirped happily. Kumiko wondered why he could say something like that in such a cheerful manner. After not finding a logical answer she simply put it to the 'typical Gunha'-things in her mind.

" With it you can overlook many things in a big area."

"A thing full of guts!"

"It is.", she agreed and chuckled a little. Bayloupe finished muttering and stood up. She walked up to them.

"The seat is ready and can be used by every person that knows how it works. Now we only need to prepare at site."

Kumiko nodded in agreement and looked back at the map. Bayloupe copied the action and asked her: "So, what did you thought of?"

The rest of the lot gathered around the table and paid attention to the explanation plus plan from Kumiko.

"They will probably attack from Calais. It's the closet route to England. Normally you would know that your enemy expect it and take another route but that isn't the case here. The reason for that conclusion is that magic cancels this whole thing. You get sensed before you arrive and killed while you are still on the ships. So they will try to come over as fast as they can.", she explained, looking in the round and awaited approval or critic. After she got the approval for the whole analysis of the situation, she continued.

"I thought of stopping them at Dover. It's the first and nearest city from Calais and perfect for them to land at and set up a base. I bet my morning coffee they will arrive there. My idea would be to set up some nasty surprises for them."

"I would recommend fire runes placed under the surface of the ground.", Lancis suggested, eyeing the way Kumiko thought the enemy would take.

"That would work. But you would need to laminate them. Waterproof and all.", Lessar added to Lancis' advice. Kumiko nodded, accepting the idea of a mine field, having the same one.

"Then it's decided! Bayloupe, you and I will go to Dover and start with preparations. It would be a bad thing when civilians are there when the fighting starts. Lessar, Lancis: You should start making this runes. And when you are at it, make communication runes so we can talk with each other. That way the seat will have a better functionality because the one that uses it can guide us better. Gunha, you will act as courier between us. Everyone understood what they are supposed to do? Then go!", Kumiko exclaimed with a motivation bigger then mount Everest. She and Bayloupe walked through the door and out of the bar. They made their way towards Bayloupe's car.

"Wow! Since when have you a new one?", Kumiko asked excited, investigating every part of the car. Said car was a red, older Porsche.

"Kumiko, stop gaffing and get in.", Bayloupe interrupted her. You needed to stop Kumiko before she gets too absorbed with the thing holding her interest. Said redhead jumped in and sat happily on the seat. She always wanted to drive in such a car! Not that Kumiko hadn't had enough money, but she saw no usage in it when she was in academy city.

Bayloupe got in the driver seat and started the motor. She slowly started to drive and then became faster and faster. Without looking away from the street Bayloupe began a conversation.

"So, Kumiko... is there something you would like to say to me?"

At that the flame head perked up. It was never a good sign when one started a talk in that way. Most of the times a beginning like that meant one of two things: a guilt trip or a scowling.

"The weather is nice!?", Kumiko said nervously, looking at her with eyes that indicated she was rather uncomfortable now. But the other girl ignored it and continued.

"Why you snapped like that is what I want to hear. I know that you can be very... emotional at times, but you also know when to act like that and when not. So... why?"

Kumiko sighed and placed her chin on her palm, arm resting on the car door. This was a conversation she didn't really wanted to have. But lying wouldn't work with Bayloupe and the older girl wouldn't also let it slight. So She opened her mouth and began to speakin a heavier voice than usual.

"Why I reacted like that? To put it short, I'm fallen."

Bayloupe's eyes widened in disbelieve. The term alone would left most minds in a puzzled state. But she knew of the experiments that got conducted on her friend and what she is or, to be precise, was. She broke her own policy to always look at the road and looked at Kumiko sitting beside her.

"You... you fell?"

"Yes, I did. And look at the road." Bayloupe hastily looked back were her eyes were supposed to be and tried to wrap her head around what Kumiko had said.

"That's the reason you are more emotional than before, right?"

"Correct. You know, after all these experiments and treatments... Uranus, Dark May... you could say I got saved by the Orion Project. If I wouldn't have been forced to participate in it, I would have broken down. Getting insane, stuff like that. The perfection I felt after the procedure helped me with my emotions. But now I'm human again. Ah, It's not that I criticize it. I'm rather grateful to the person who managed this feat. But with being human again all this comes crashing down. I need to learn how to handle all the emotions before I can be like I was when I was still a hybrid. That was also the reason, or one reason, that I traveled to this place before I went seeing my brother. I couldn't let him see me in this state. Even though I can act like all is alright with me, a little slip and all would be falling down. And I don't want to risk the chance of that happening.", Kumiko explained, looking in the distance with hazy eyes. Bayloupe simply smiled at her behavior.

'Caring about her brother even though she is at the risk of falling into a bottomless abyss. A typical Kumiko thing.'

"You know you need help from a therapist, right?", she said in a teasing tone and smirked, changing the direction of the conversation. Kumiko sputtered at that.

"I don't! I'm fine, ok?"

Bayloupe's eyebrow quirked up.

"Okay, okay. I'm not one hundred percent fine. But it's not that bad."

"Sure, sure."

"I'm serious!"

The rest of the ride they both bantered each other, enjoying the wind whirling around them.

* * *

Floris had a tiring day so far. Earlier at 12 am she was forced to go shopping after losing at rock paper scissors. The empty fridge needed to be filled as well as a it was time to buy a new toaster after Lessar broke the old one. And this task, containing the same amount of excitement as watching a fish in a glass doing nothing, was hers to bear because of bad luck.

she was somewhat surprised of what she found when she came back and opened the door after walking through half London to get all the things needed.

Inside the bar she watched Lessar and Lancis making rune cards one after another. The amount finished cards laying on the table was rather high. While walking in she wondered for what they needed so many cards. They were enough to set a big mine field. And with big she meant huge. Her train of thoughts stooped and focused on the other uncommon thing in this building: A boy she had never seen before twitching on the sofa and practically beaming in anticipation. For what she didn't know.

"Ähm, why does it look like you prepare to fight an entire army?", Floris finally decided to make herself known. Three pair of eyes set their sight on her for a short moment, Lessar and Lancis stopped for a small period of time with their work. After both they resumed their work.

"Apparently GREMLIN decided to attack the united kingdom. So we prepare.", Lessar explained, finishing the card she worked on and grabbed a new blank.

Floris looked at her with a expression that said 'Are you kidding me?!'. She tried to think of a good answer to the single question crossing her mind. What had happened in the time of a few hours she was gone?

"How comes that I didn't get the memo?"

"We kinda forgot about you.", came the answer. Cue a eye twitch.

"But you can go with the idiot there to Bayloupe to bring her this cards. Ah, and the spankbringer is with her."

"Who?"

"She means Kurokami Kumiko.", Lancis explained, drawing a communication rune on a card. Three were already lying in front of her on the table, finished.

"She is here?", Floris asked surprised, raising her eyebrows. She held respect for the older girl. Not the kind of respect you hold for a good superior but the one you hold for a good human. Floris knew that Kumiko cared for her brother alone and without any support, being the reason why she liked the girl. She was the perfect example of what New Light wanted to achieve: to be an independent and strong but feminine woman.

Floris casted a second look towards Gunha who by now elevated himself in the air again and again. Strange at the display was that he did it without moving a muscle.

"And the boy jumping on the sofa?"

" He is Kumiko's lackey. She brought him with her for reasons beyond my comprehension.", Lancis answered, finishing the rune she worked on. Then she started to laminate the them.

"And great timing; You can help him bring this cards", a gesture towards the pile, " to the persons in charge of this whole thing."

"Wha... I just got back from a hunt for groceries and _a toaster_ through all London and the moment I get back I need to carry something again!?", Floris exclaimed with a agitation that was rather big. No one knew why she put a emphasis on the toaster but let it slide. Sometimes things shouldn't be asked and the way she emphasized the word there was something evil lurking underneath.

"Yeah, I mean exactly that. What do you think will happen of not one but two from the sadisters will find out that you stayed behind and did nothing?", Lessar chirped, sending her a smirk. Floris shuddered at that thought. No, she was not going to rest or she would face something worse than sore limbs. She acted unconsciously on her survival instinct and flashed a fake smile.

"Then, let's do it! What's your name?", she asked the boy who jumped up at her exclamation. He beamed at her with such a smile that she thought she would become blind.

"My name is Sogiita Gunha! And my guts tell me your a awesome person!", he practically yelled at her, Floris leaning instinctually away.

"That's... nice to know.", she replied, stunned by his behavior like almost anyone else from human kind. Floris began with the others to bind cards together and then place the stacks in a bag. After they were done she shoved the bag in Gunha's hands with the words "a gentleman should always carry the things of a lady.". By the word 'lady' Lessar snorted and got for that a punch on the head.

With a 'we're off' Floris and Gunha walked through the door. The moment they got out Floris remembered an important thing and face palmed. How do they get to them? She couldn't use her wings, they would just draw unnecessary attention. And the car was taken by Bayloupe.

While she thought how to solve this situation Gunha became more and more hectic. He wanted to get going! so why did they stop the moment they were about to go? When he asked her she answered with a simple "how we get there?". Gunha's resolution was easy: grabbing Floris in a bridal style hold who squeaked because of the action and her sack with the still not occupied hand and with a bang they were on their way to Dover. Floris screamed the whole time it took them to get there.

* * *

Kumiko heard the scream before she saw them. Even though she was sure that this was not physically possible, Kumiko knew Gunha was something that made every foundational rule of the universe didn't apply to reality and took them out of the equation, most of the time with a boom and something going up in flames.

She and Bayloupe were working on placing a Valhalla rune formation spell around whole Dover. The spell was made after the legendary hall with the same name. It would let all civilians disappear out of Dover so they wouldn't get in the crossfire. Right know they were placing the last seal north west from the city. Well, Bayloupe placed it and Kumiko just stood beside her, talking with her about possible strategies and their effectiveness.

So, as she heard the scream becoming louder in a fast way she sighed and stepped backwards, a second before a flash landed on the spot she previously stood and scatted around ten meters before coming to an halt, whirling up a dust cloud. Even though the vision was clouded she knew exactly who that was. The cloud cleared and standing there was Gunha, holding a rather tattered Floris bridal style and a sack in each of his hands. It was truly a sight to behold.

"Uhm, Gunha...", Kumiko started, looking seconds away from face palming. She needed to tell herself again and again that Gunha is just Gunha and it is his normal behavior and nothing stupid he does is on purpose.

"Yes, Kumiko?", Gunha responded, shooting a smile in her direction. He still didn't notice the near half dead girl in his arms, a treat that was remarkable in its own way. How much she wanted to crush this smile...

'No, bad thought! Control yourself! You will not strangle him no matter how tempting it is!'

Her face twitched alongside her inner struggle, the others(except Floris) looking at her with a questioning look. Kumiko found her Zen in a couple of seconds and began what she started to say.

"Well, Gunha , I wanted to say that it would be for the best if you would let Floris go; she doesn't seem to be really... healthy at the moment."

Gunha looked at Floris for the first time and saw her hanging limply in his arms. Processing the relation between what Kumiko said and the possible reason why the girl was indeed pale and not really conscious let him to somewhat believe that was his fault. So he did the first thing coming in his mind: He let her drop. No laying her down on the ground, no helping her stand. He just let her drop like a stone and how she dropped. Floris landed hard on the ground and stayed there motionless, simply lying there spread out, looking like a stranded fish. After some seconds she came back to life and hugged the ground like it would be a member of family and dissolve any moment. This comparison gave Kumiko a painful sting in the back of her mind and the memory started to surface, but she pushed it down. She hadn't the time for a breakdown now.

"Safety giving ground, I thought I would never see you again!", Floris sobbed, completely disregarding she acted not normal. Kumiko got a sympathizing look in her eyes and walked up to her and patted her shoulder. She knew exactly, no matter how accustomed you are with flying or generally high velocities, you could never be ready for you first 'per Gunha'-transition. Why she knew that? Let just say Gunha thought it was a good idea on their chase for her brother to cross the English channel with a jump.

"There, there...", Kumiko said. The other girl recovered after a moment of awkwardness and stood up, try to look like it didn't happen in the first place. Kumiko and Bayloupe sweat dropped at the attempt and eyed the two sacks.

"That are the runes, correct?", Bayloupe asked and took the sacks from Gunha, opening the sacks with a gauging look. In it were the bundle of rune cards, neatly drawn from what she saw. She nodded in approval and grabbed one which she threw to Floris who caught it out of the air.

"Start burying them along the coast and in the whole city. I will finish Valhalla and then help you. Also, Everyone needs to grab one communication rune."

That was the cue for Floris to pull said cards out of her pocket and gave everyone one, holding onto one herself.

"I'll explain the way to use it in case you don't know or forgotten how to. Simply place it in your pocket and think of the person you want to talk about. And Gunha, this is a specialized version, so espers can use it to.", Bayloupe explained, looking at Gunha to see if he understood what he said. By the voice in her head saying 'That's awesome!' she concluded he indeed had understood her. But his expression changed to a puzzled one.

"What do you mean by 'so espers can use it too'?", He asked her, looking like he paid attention to it.

"Normally magic can't be used by espers. It would rupture their nerve system and let their capillaries explode. Not the kind of death you would want. So I and Kumiko had a little project at how to solve it. We managed by changing the needed energy from mana to... something else compatible."

"Ah, what a gutsy thing to do!", Gunha satisfied himself with that answer and let it be.

"Yeah, whatever you say. Kumiko, could you look at the harbor walls and think if we could use them for something?"

"On the way. Come, Gunha. Follow me.", Kumiko walked away but not before grabbing a stack, Gunha in her tracks with a hop in his steps. He just couldn't help but being excited. Finally a challenge to overcome with guts!

* * *

While Floris grabbed a sack and walked towards the coast, Bayloupe finished the rune on the ground and activated the spell. The spell produced a field which automatically sorted persons into 'allowed' and 'not allowed', the first being members of GREMLIN and themselves, the second civilians. Because of that the persons walking through the streets vanished suddenly out of their view.

Bayloupe grabbed the second sack and made her way towards the area just behind Dover. She started to bury the runes. Make a hole, put a card in it, fill the hole, go to another spot and repeat the process. The whole thing was rather boring but needed to be done.

After around thirty minutes of preparing the runes Floris and Bayloupe meet up again. Bayloupe had one card left, but this one was different: This card was the trigger to activate the runes and made them into what they were supposed to be, namely land mines. She channeled mana in the card and recited a spell:"Muspell, devouring flames existing in both beginning and end, let yourself be freed to complete your work. The ones receiving your hunger shall be of difference, being the one sabotaging the wagons of human kind."

The rune glowed red, illuminating her face for a brief second before becoming once again a dull black. She opened a connection to everyone else.

'Mines set and ready.'

* * *

'Roger that. Lessar, you are in charge of the seat. Switch with Lancis when you need to refine your mana again.', Kumiko ordered. That way they would have 24/7 reconnaissance and both won't be to exhausted plus had enough mana to defend themselves if an enemy managed to get to them. To get the head of the enemy was a basic tactic. Sad it would go hand in hand with blinding them too. This precaution would allow at least one of them to defend themselves. She got a sign of acknowledgement from both and cut the line for now.

Kumiko stood with Gunha on the harbor wall, looking over Dover in search of good spots for an ambush. Right now she wondered if she could use the walls and runes to create a death zone. For example link cards together and use them for a different thing as mines. When activated, she thought, it could make a field of fire slightly above the water, burning everything in its vicinity. She asked Bayloupe per card if that would work and with a 'yes' she started to happily set it up. She gave Gunha some of the cards and ordered him to place them on the other wing of the wall, around twenty meters between each. She complied with a thumps up and started with his task. At the same time Kumiko asked Bayloupe to set them up when asked and at the same time began to place her cards, too. After they placed the last card, forming a oval around the water between coast and harbor wall, Kumiko opened a link to Bayloupe.

"The zone is ready. It's only waiting for you to activate it."

After some seconds the runes glowed red for a moment, indicating that they were ready.

'I made the spell in a way which allows us to trigger them remotely. That way we can time the activation perfectly and causing as much casualties as possible on GREMLIN's side.', Bayloupe's voice sounded in her head. They were ready, now the fish only needs to swim in the trap.

'Then the only thing left for us now is to wait.', Kumiko send to everyone and concentrated on the sea. The waves flowed in a nearly melodic way, the swoosh sounding like a lullaby. It caused her to sink in her memories, remembering her of everything that went wrong, everything that was a mistake, everyone she killed. She sunk deeper and deeper, the more the darker the memories got.

Because of that she didn't noticed Lessar's warning transmitted over a connection, because of that she didn't see the slight changing in the way the waves moved. Because of that she didn't see the water coming together and forming something, becoming ice and growing larger and larger. Only when a humanoid giant made out of ice filled her view she snapped out of her thoughts. She looked the ice giant in front of her with widened eyes and one single thing flew around in her mind before a fist as big as a tank came down towards her.

'Oh shit!'

* * *

**And that was it with the tenth chapter! Regarding the explanation, I hope it answered the question why I let Kumiko have more emotional reactions than before. Kumiko isn't a perfect human. She isn't like most of the anime characters who only suffer from a loss or something terrible for only one episode. I tried to show you that despite how she acts in front of others she still is just a teenage girl and suffers from her past like a human normally would. This chapter should show you that she didn't get out of it without a emotional or mental scar and I hope I managed to do so.**

**I decided to bring a 'progress bar' in my profil so you can see what exactly to what extend is finished. The progress is not meassured by the amount of words but by the already written down content of the chapter.**

**And here, to celebrate the already mentioned event, I made a omake, the second one! This was originally an idea I had that I planned to bring in the story but decided against: There was one already and one is enough(Not to mention the mental trauma for the effected would be simply to big).**

**Omake: Meeting of Light and Backstabber:**

Kumiko stood in front of Aleister Crowley, waiting for him to give her the 'mission' he sumoned her for. He started talking after a dramatic pause.

"Valkyrie, your next job will need you to work together with someone else or it won't procced like planned."

She was a little confuse about it and about to ask a question when she heard fottsteps behind her. She turned around and saaw a boy with blonde hair, sunglasses and a chan around his neck, dressed in a Hawaii shirt. The moment their eyes meet both feeled something. A connection, something as deep and strong as the universe itself between them, making them equal. Both stared a each other and waited for something only they knew. The boy reacted first and moved in front of her.

Standing there he lifted his hand and held it between them, offering a handshake. He introduced himself with a completely serious expression: "Siscon."

Kumiko took said hand and returned:"Brocon"

Both shook once with strength in it and a grimm expression on their face, acknowledging the other.

Somewhere in the city two certain siblings went a cold shiver down their spine.

**Omake end**

**Please leave a review, commentary or, if it exists, a question you have.**

**And with that I'm out, bye!**


	11. author's notice and answers to reviews

**Hello guys! If you think this is an actual chapter then sorry, It's not. I am kinda busy at the moment. I wrote this as an message because after... I think that was around 7-8 weeks: Yes, I'm alive and kicking and north Germany was fun. I don't really know when I will get the time to finish the next chapter but I hope you can bear with me for the time being.**

**Another reason I made this is to answer reviews I got in the time as It would be simply rude of me to not answer them till the next chapter where I, like mentioned above, have no idea when it will be finished. So, here are the answers:**

***TheTrueMasterofTempest*:**

**To chapter 3: Yeah, now where you mention it there is indeed quite a bit of explanation.**

**To chapter 7: I don't know if you think it was too long in the sense of ' way too much'. If It was meant in this way: I cut some things out of it(content, not more filled out writing; That only got better with following chapters, like me writting more in general, and had nothing to do with laziness and/or inability). So, yeah... to the next topic of your review: The thing about teacher at Tokiwadai. That decision takes some explanation. Like in the story mentioned it was Yomikawa who got Kumiko the job. Because she already knew about Kumiko's official data, and so life, Yomikawa knew that Kumiko would need time to take care of her brother (out of her paranoia, not Kureno needing help), meaning she needs to be at home around noon or afternoon. Anti-skill was already out because of that reason as the work time is irregular and/or long. Besides that Kumiko would need a big pay check to repay the debts. The only workplace, under my theory from me that work related things get handled differently than normal in AC, would be Tokiwadai. Hope you understand/accept it; If not just write an answer!**

**To chapter 8: Yeah, I know what you mean. Kumiko indeed knows a lot. But rest assured: Because she doesn't works for Crawly since the first arc she doesn't possess the access to the information network anymore. Her knowledge stops with what she knows in the Britannia Arc. So there will be surprises in coming chapters.**

**So, that was it with my notice! Hope to see you guys soon with my next chapter(having little to no free time sucks.)!**

**I'm out, bye!**


	12. Britannia Arc: Chapter 4

**Guys, I'm back with the next chapter! Sorry for the big delay! But nevertheless I wish you much fun reading it.**  
_**  
**_**The 'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**

***Otaku prince*: Sorry I didn't reply to you in the note I had written but I will do so now: Nope, KumikoxTouma will not happen. BUT: You gave me with this review an awesome and at the same time hilarious idea in that direction. And this idea will spring in action with the next arc, bringing slight sadistic glee plus an increase of Touma's misfortune by the factor 2. At least. So thanks for this inspiration!**

**Here ends what the author(me) is saying or telling or answering and the story continues!**

_**'To aru majutsu no Index does not belong to me, only my OCs'**_

* * *

_Chapter 4: The helpless light_

"Shit shit shit!", Kumiko recited this mantra repeatedly, jumping up in the sky to avoid being squashed like a fly and then increased the energy from the pull to the ground to avoid being grabbed and becoming something no human would want to become. Ever.

Right now She was on the run. From what you ask? A 120 meters high giant made completely out of the solid form of water: Ice. And this large structure of moving ice tried to pulverize her to a unrecognizable pile of mush. So she did what was needed to be done to not let it change her body structure: she evaded every attack the thing tried to hit her with.

Of course at first she tried to destroy it. She really did! Her punch was a solid one in its abdomen with all the energy she could channel, managing to break a rather large part of it into crumbles. But that damn thing decided to regenerate and so the damage was away after a not so long time. A couple of seconds to be precise.

And Gunha was currently... on the head of the creature, holding his arm up in the air. How he got to this position in the heat of battle she didn't know but decided that was what Gunha could do best: Doing things which humans, including himself, can't exactly understand how he managed to do. Then he began to yell something that most humans in their age group would most likely find embarrassing.

"GODLY...", Plasma started to spin around his fist, concentrating into a tornado of blue.

"...ANNHILATION...", the plasma came together and formed a perfect blue white sphere around his hand.

"...THE SECOND!", he screamed, the last part with extra enthusiasm in it, and punched down, releasing the plasma. The right half of the giant got evaporated instantly and steam rose up, engulfing the whole area. The other half fell back into the sea. Kumiko stopped in her tracks and looked at Gunha, who sailed down towards her, with a strange look. He landed in front of her and got into a 'thumps up'-pose, showing her a smile that held the same intensity as a flash bang.

"See, Kumiko? That was an action full of guts!", Gunha exclaimed at which Kumiko did one thing and one thing only: She despaired. Why exactly did she took him with her? Her line of thought stopped as abruptly as it started when the steam went away. She tapped Gunha on the shoulder and pointed behind him. He turned around and what he saw made the smile he had threatening to split his face into half. The giant regenerated itself again and stood up slowly. After it has recovered the giant proceeded with a punch towards the two. Gunha in his gutsfulness immediately made himself ready to stop it but got dragged away by Kumiko who jumped away with his arm in her hand, eyes focused on the giant and a snarl on her face. It was Gunha's time to complain.

"Why did you stop me? That was the perfect challenge for my guts!"

"You can't stop it! I don't know what you see in it but you simply can't!", Kumiko answered, desperately trying to retain what was left of her sanity between an oversized chunk of ice trying to stomp her in the ground and Gunha in his full and shining glory.

"Everything is impossible until someone does make it possible! With guts!"

Kumiko flat-out ignored the declaration and once again increased the energy of the pull leading downwards, right in time to not get punched midair and sent flying like a baseball.

'And why can't you stop it?', sounded Lessar's voice in her head, having an accusing undertone. The older girl had fought against two saints at the same time with a smile plastered on her face but now didn't even try to stop the giant. That was something she couldn't accept nor understand!

'You're the magician! Can't you feel how much telesma got pumped into that thing and how much each attack holds? It basically vibrates from it! That's simply too much even for me! If you want to stop it, get the #1!', Kumiko thought back, seeing an opening and threw Gunha, who yelled "YAHOOO!" with glee, towards the giants face. He landed an amazing punch and blew the face away which did the same as every other part they destroyed before.

'Another thing: Did you know they got a Ymir spell ready? Even though it's still the smaller and ice based version?', Bayloupe asked, watching the show from behind.

'Of course not! If I would have known I would have made precautions to counter it!', She answered, agitated that all the weak points she had hit didn't seem to be weak points after all. To that thing it doesn't matter if you destroyed a telesma line or two; They would simply connect themselves again.

'Lessar, can you find the source of the spell? I don't think such a spell works autonomic; Someone needs to refill it continually.', Kumiko asked, frustration threatening to boil over. This whole thing just doesn't seem to end and she hated it. Why couldn't this chunk die already?

After some more dodging and tries to destroy it Lessar spoke up again. But something was wrong: She sounded to be in panic which again made the others slightly anxious.

'I-I found the source. And you won't like it.'

'Where is it?'

'It's rising up... now.'

The water seemed to become darker at a spot some distance behind the giant as if something ascended out of the sea. Then the object in question broke out of the water and began to float up, water falling down in cascades. It was huge, nearly double the size of the ice giant. Kumiko watched as it ascended higher and higher with wide eyes, internally thinking it was unfair on so many levels.

"A fortress-class? Really? A FORTRESS-CLASS? THAT'S SO NOT FUNNY!", she yelled, deciding she hated this day. So much went wrong that it was more like a bad comedy than anything else. And she was about to realize that the day would become even more shittier.

A hatch opened and a beam of light shot out, hitting the spot Kumiko landed on after a jump to dodge a giant's hand, and enveloped her. The moment she was surrounded by the light she couldn't move or see anymore. It was like she was stuck in a wall, unable to do anything but only see white, a pressure squeezing the air out of her lungs. She didn't notice how she got lifted up and flew towards the hatch, the only thing she could think of was that she was truly in trouble now.

Then her view turned black, Kumiko losing consciousness.

* * *

Gunha saw how Kumiko got shrouded by a pillar of light, only her silhouette still visible. After some seconds she was lifted off the ground and sucked towards the origin of the light. He wondered why she didn't do anything to change her situation and decided to get her out. He won't allow that Kumiko did something so gutless as getting captured! With a battle cry he jumped towards a spot of the pillar above her and punched with all his might against the pillar, but it wouldn't budge. He pounced it again and got still the same result. Kumiko floated past him slowly, looking like a puppet being dragged up by the puppeteer, all the time he could only watch helpless while he fell down as she wandered up and up, ending inside of the flying fortress. The light stopped the same time the hatch closed, cutting the view one get from her.

Around the same time Lessar pointed out new ships, though small in comparison which floated up from the darkness of the sea and landed on the coast. troops streamed out, some of them caught in a field of fire. Bayloupe had activated the circle of runes Kumiko and Gunha had placed beforehand. Flesh burnt and humans screamed, all those who dove got boiled by the strongly heated water. But after the flames died down there were new ones who filled the lines of the fallen after they cooled down the water, storming towards the local members of New Light.

Gunha felt something he didn't feel for a long time. A strong emotion, spreading through his whole core, infecting it. Someone let Kumiko look gutless, a thing that was unacceptable from his view. Sogiita Gunha, the #7 of the eight Level 5s of Academy City, was angry. And not just angry, but furious. He was going to let the ones who did that pay! Gunha landed on the ground and immediately made himself ready to jump towards the fortress again but got stopped by Bayloupe's voice in his head.

'Don't!'

'I need to stop this gutlessness!'

'No, you don't! Listen, I know how you feel, but at the moment there are more important matters to attend then saving her! She won't bulge because of something like that so concentrate on the enemies on the ground.', Bayloupe reasoned, being angry, too. But despite the emotion she kept her cool, already thinking and planning about how she will get Kumiko out of the ship and keep the ground forces occupied at the same time.

A extremely loud noise filled the air, letting the lower jaws clatter. The fortress ascended up in the sky even more and flew inland. The defenders could only watch the flying ship sail away, being occupied with the magicians and normal soldiers spreading through the city, attacking them.

Bayloupe literally glided through their lines, slicing them up with her steel glove and sending lightning at enemies out of her reach. Crackles and screams filled the air, followed by the smell of ozone and burned flesh. The electricity left only charred, motionless bodies. Soldiers who fled out of her zone of effect ran in mines or got picked up by Floris who shot fire, her movements fluid and never stopping. Though they got hit by multiple bullets or magic both didn't receive any damage because of protection spells they weaved themselves into. The spells, even though being limited in their maximal capacity should hold most of the damage for a good amount of time.

Gunha focused on his fight with the giant again. The ice monster stood in front of him, looming over Gunha and raised one giant fist for a attack. The #7 shifted into his signature ready position, glaring furiously at the giant. He needed to do this quick. A unknown energy gathered around him, discharges occurred randomly around him every now and then. Gunha pressed his feet on the ground and disappeared. Suddenly he was in front of the chest of the ice giant, his fist pierced it. Bayloupe and everyone else gaped as the whole stream of telesma inside of the Ymir got crushed at once, letting it fall apart and become water again, creating a steam cloud in the process. Every fighting stopped and any pair of eyes focused on the silhouette inside the slowly clearing cloud, walking towards them.

"Make yourself ready;", It spoke slowly and deceivingly calm, without an hint of the positive undertone this voice possessed normally. On everybody from the members of Gremlin began to roll down cold sweat, they being petrified while watching the abnormality nearing itself their position. Bayloupe and Floris decided it was too dangerous to stay and let him have this fight, making themselves on their way to hunt the ones who were already on the march towards London. Both knew they would be in his way. The cloud got scattered by a sudden burst of energy and revealed Gunha, still surrounded by a shroud of it. He clenched his right fist and the energy gathered itself around it, becoming denser and denser. Space itself seemed to be distorted where his fist was. They were about to witness on their own the true might of an angered Level 5.

"I insert some serious guts into you."

* * *

The church of England's headquarter was in a mess. Knowledge about the whole events taking place around and in Dover got channeled and sorted. Nuns ran around, bringing stack of paper filled with information back and forth. Shouts filled the air, requesting certain documents and maps from the areas the hostile forces were in. Currently the two main objectives they worked to achieve at the moment were the evacuation of the city and the mobilization of troops to defend their country.

"Was this what she wanted to warn us from?", Stiyl asked his superior as they watched the battle that unfolded in Dover through a screen. Well, more like a one-sided beat down then a battle, the black haired boy dominating the troops from GREMLIN. A punch send a boat flying and it crashed into a harbor wall, bursting at contact. The next moment a squad was send flying while another boat got cleanly cut by a energy beam before exploding.

"It appears so.", Stuart replied with a tone in her voice as if she talked about the weather, but in truth she was tense. The situation was far from good and even though the #7 did a great job at keeping a good portion of the GREMLIN at bay, it wasn't enough. More and more troops slipped past him and were already on their way towards London. The view switched to Floris and Bayloupe how they tried to stop the slipped through ones but didn't quite managed to do so. They were just too many.

"How much did the evacuation progress?"

"We managed to evacuate around 25% of the population.", Stiyl replied. For their taste too slow but at the same time it is not a small task to bring the civilians out of London and in safety. A magical barrier wouldn't work: Too easy to break for the enemy, meaning too much risk for the populace.

"Where is Kanzaki?"

"Already on her way with the Amakusa to aid the New light members. They will arrive soon."

"Good. We still need to get in contact with the queen and her knights about the situation at hand. Though I think that they have already a picture of the situation."

"If so why didn't they do anything until now? Surely they would already know of the circumstances and I'm sure there would be a quick resolution for the current happenings at hand.", Stiyl said surprised. To think the very guard of this land wasn't already occupied with fighting against the threat. It was ridiculous.

"I don't really know what is keeping them. I only know that the connection was cut off shortly before the invasion began." The meaning hang unspoken in the air: Either they didn't care or, what was far more likely, a spec ops team of the enemy somehow managed to make them unable to response. That was what many would call more than unnerving. The knights of England and their leader were by all means no pushovers.

"The only thing left for us is managing the invasion as good as we can and hope that the knights will eventually join us.", Stuart stated, watching quietly the events unfold. She could do nothing more in the moment.

* * *

Floris hasted through the forest over a small hill. Magical projectiles and bullets flew through the air, hitting her barriers and the tress and ground around her. She replied in kind and send fireballs back at the enemies she could see, trying her best to reduce the amount of attacks coming at her through ending their sources.

Suddenly something hit her in the back and exploded, sending her flying through the air and into a tree, creating a spider web of cracks on the surface. Though her barrier absorbed most of the damage, the impact only pressing the air out of her, the situation she was in became more and more desperate for her. Floris' barrier was barely holding up at this point.

She jumped up but not without sending a extra large stream of fireballs at the one who had hit her. The target, what appeared to be a magician, immediately set up a defense wall. But the stream was too strong and broke through after some seconds, leaving nothing but ashes from the human who stood in this spot.

She had no time to recover; The cracking of rifles begun to start, bullets bolting through the area she was in. They forced Floris to sprint for cover to ease the stress on her barrier, but during the sprinting a sniper rifle cracked out of nowhere, hitting her in the side. The barrier finally gave in and the impact send her to the ground. She hissed as pain erupted from the hit side, letting her vision blur slightly. No matter how much she tried to gather the strength to stand up she couldn't muster it nor could she do it for starting another attack.

'So this is how it ends...', Floris thought, seeing how a soldier stopped over her and aimed at her head. She closed her eyes, waiting for the unavoidable.

All the sudden a fast moving, thin object could be heard as it cut through the air followed by a scream of pain. She opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she saw was a pile of flesh and composite armor. Realizing what this pile previously was her eyes widened slightly. Floris slowly turned her head to the side and saw Kanzaki Kaori escorted by some Amakusas. Soon after that her vision blurred completely and she succumbed to the exhaustion.

* * *

Kanzaki looked for a short amount of time at the New light member and signaled Itsuwa to aid the hurt girl. With this done she began attacking the rest of the enemies together with the Amakusa who followed her. The group had no problems in cleaning up the rest of the invaders in this section of the forest. It was a short and bloody fight.

After their business taken care of Kanzaki went seeing how Floris was. But to think one girl at the tender age of 15 had delayed this may troops was a really impressive thing. When she arrived Itsuwa already completed the treatment and watched over her patient. She had bandaged the whole stomach area.

"How is she?", Kanzaki asked her, being concerned. The wound looked nasty when she saw it.

"I got the round out of her side. She was lucky that the bullet got slowed down by what was left of the barrier. If not she would have been dead by now."

That was good. She would have hated it if such a young girl would have been killed, more so such a talented one. Their job was done here. So Kanzaki opened a magical connection to the HQ.

"What is the situation in Dover?"

"Rather well; The esper boy made good work with the enemies there. Right now he is hunting the ones that got past him. They are inbound on your position. Orders for you is to intercept them on their way to London. But proceed with caution; they have vehicles with heavy weapons.", and with that the link got terminated.

Suddenly they could hear the crack of thunder in the distance. Its echo sounded some more times and trickled away. Kanzaki knew who that was: Bayloupe, the leader of New Light. ANother thing was that she saw smoke coming up in the direction London was. With on last thought of worry and saying herself that she couldn't help her or London because she had other, more pressing things to do. So she headed towards Dover to intercept the incoming troops.

* * *

Bayloupe would have had, if not for the fact that Lessar informed her about the direct attack on London, the time of her life. She was ever moving, her movements remembering one of a dance. Her steelglove ever swirling and slashing and lighting flew through the air and impacted in enemies, leaving nothing than charred corpses and the smell of burned flesh like in Dover. She was an unstoppable force, dead was the only thing left in her trace.

During all the time she was like in a trance. She couldn't come up with a plan to save Kumiko. To save Kumiko; This was such an unaccustomed thought for her. Kumiko, the former Valkyrie, in the need of help. Would it have been in any other situation she would have laughed over this thought. But not now. Now she was more than worried: She was scared for her friend. But she also knew that she would need to believe in the redhead.

'Please stay save, Kumiko. Please stay safe.'

* * *

"Aufwachen, meine Liebe."

Kumiko let out a soft groan in response to the spoken words, slowly stirring and trying to get out of the darkness that enveloped her mind. Her head seemed to be filled with cotton, foggy pictures floating through it, at first being unclear but getting sharper the more she slipped out of the black like a really, really dense mist in her thought processes that faded slowly, revealing more and more the more time goes by.

Unconsciousness. It was such a fickle thing, sometimes a blessing and sometimes a huge pain in the ass. Right now Kumiko realized, the more she slipped out of it, that the latter was perfectly the type she got. The first clue she noticed was that she was in a sitting position what was rather abnormal for a human who is sleeping or unconscious. The second clue was that the sentence she had heard earlier was German. The third and last clue was when Kumiko realized that German was not the language spoken in the city or the cities vicinity her memories told her where she was supposed to be, namely in London.

She opened her eyes abruptly but regretted it the next second, closing them as fast as she opened them. It takes no big brain to figure out what happens when eyes which are closed for a longer period of time meets a bright light source. Said light source was directly in front of her head, piercing her eyes and causing pain. After the initial shock she slowly and blinkingly opened her eyes, taking her time for them to adjust to the rays who were at fault.

"Where am I?", was the first thing she uttered groggily. Maybe not the most intelligent question per se but in the current circumstances acceptable. Let it be said that Kumiko was never and will never be a morning person.

She looked around with a sleepy expression on her face. The sleepiness faded quickly and her eyes widened slightly when she finally proceeded the surroundings. the room she was currently in looked like a room owned by a scientist in one of these fantasy movies. It was a big oval room, on the wall standing tables full with any kind of apparatuses one could only find in steam punk. Stairs lead up to what appeared to be a balcony that seemed to function as a library if the amount of bookshelves were any indicator.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person, miss Kurokami. You can't believe how delightful the current chance to familiarize with you is for me.", the same voice she had heard before sounded from the balcony but she couldn't see its origin. She let her eyes wander in the general direction and after some seconds saw the owner of the voice as he stepped into her view. European, mid to early twenties, around six foot tall, black, gelled hair and piercing blue, intelligent eyes. He wore a black suit with a red tie.

"But where are my manners?", the man continued happily and proceeded to descend down the stairs. "My name is Lucius Schwarzeiche and I must emphasize again how much meaning this meeting holds for me."

Kumiko, being in front of the origins of the Invasion, immediately tried to jump up. When she realized that there was something that stopped her to do so plus the fact that it was cold, something that was with her ability impossible, Kumiko looked down for the first time. Her eyes widened and a slight blush threatened to crawl over her face and managed to do so.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?", Kumiko shouted, her voice shivering from embarrassment and fury alike. She was sitting on a throne, her wrists and ankles being chained to it. Out of some reason she couldn't simply destroy the restrains or throne but that wasn't the part the made her a red mess: She was sat on the throne in nothing but her undergarments!

"I'm really sorry for the state you are in now. The rest of your clothes became victims of the telesma that I used to... invite you. They were a ugly sight. But do not worry. I asked one of my subordinates who shares your gender to remove them. I am still a gentleman and will not touch a woman's body without the consent of said woman.", Lucius answered sounding sincerely sorry but nevertheless sending her a dazzling smile. Kumiko gritted her teeth in response. Instead of saying anything else she tried to burst the restrains binding her to the throne but in no veil. Something hindered her to use her ability.

"That will not work, miss Kurokami. Without your ability, so I fear, you will not be able to get out of them."

After that sentence something in Kumiko's mind clicked and her eyes widened a little. A thought which has lingered in her mind the whole time since she regained coconsciousness while being seated on this throne. It got disregarded until this moment because of her own inability to accept it but now crawled slowly out of the depth of her mind. But that couldn't be the case, could it?

"So I recommend you to simply let it be for the time being and lend me an ear or two.", Lucius continued without noticing the miniscule widened eyes of his 'guest'. He arrived on the same level she was on and promptly strolled without a care in the world towards a small cupboard with the back turned to Kumiko..

"How did you manage to bind me to this?", she asked, controlling her emotions as best as she could. Screaming around wouldn't help her in this situation and she knew it. At the question Lucius send her a brief look but didn't answer. Instead he opened the cupboard and retrieved a glass and a bottle cognac. The man filled some in the glass and put the cognac back into the cupboard.

"Through a magnificent idea, origin me.", he said after a ,most like meant to be, dramatic pause he made, turning around and looking at her with that unnerving smile of him."I was a little unsure at first, being that I had no way to test my theory, but it seems I was right on that one."

Kumiko looked baffled at him. How? How did he manage that? Her curiosity and striving for information to make an escape plan got the better of her.

"Theory you say?"

"Yes, a theory. One I came up with it when I began studying your case. You must know, Miss Kurokami, that Your existence fascinates me to no end."

"You... studied my case?", Kumiko, now finally and completely creeped out, threw him a glare that spoke more than hundred words, a majority of them would be immediately rated M.

"I did. Since the first time I saw you at the north pole. I was so... intrigued by you. Back then I was a researcher under the Anglican Church. Saints were the things I thought to be the chosen ones, unbeatable giants. But then I saw you during time I was stationed at the north pole. The way how easily you fought and won against two saints at the same time with a smile on your face, unreachable for them; At that time I realized that you were the key to open the gates to a better world.", he spoke to her excitedly like a child talking to its idol.

"I was captivated by you. You were a being beyond anything I've seen before, a empress meant to lead the humans to salvation. Saving humanity out of the pitiful ways it is following, harming and bringing grief and pain to everything including itself."

For Kumiko that was the most unfitting description of herself before the fall that she could think of. She hadn't been a bringer of salvation. Well, Not the kind of salvation normal people would think of but the one which would have meant death. A scowl slowly formed on the man's face before he continued.

"But look what they had done to you? You where the most beautiful being on this planet, the hope for humanity. You were above all sentient life forms wandering on earth. But now you got degraded to a filthy human again."

She was quite fond of being a human again, thank you! He seemed to realize something if the shift of his expression on was any indicator.

"I'm sorry that I lost track. Back to the invitation: After a rather long period of researching I found out, or better say came up with a theory. The only way you could have become what you were was through a direct insert of a telesma core in your body. But the needed amount of telesma to force the process onward is high, too high for a human to withstand, ability or not. So the theory was that you would have a astonishingly high resistance to this kind of energy and that the telesma which was once in your body left traces. And this theory was spot on as it would seem."

That explained it. The beam, the pressure, her ability being cut down. Her capture wasn't a simple idea. That was also not a in-the-moment action; For that it was too well planned.

"Your plan never was to attack Britain; It was to capture me. I was the target.", Kumiko stated as one of the most logical theories out of the many she could come up with about her current circumstances which lingered in her mind became reality. Exactly the one that she didn't want to prove itself to be true. Lucius began to clap and his smile widened even more.

"You are correct, miss Kurokami. Your invitation was indeed the first priority of this operation. Well, my top priority. But that wasn't all. The second was and still is the total annihilation of London and its surroundings as your previous theory would most likely say."

From what Kumiko gathered during the whole conversation she needed to give it to him: He was good. Cunning, logical thinker and most of all: well informed. It was the last part that sent shivers down her spine. Something about it didn't seem right. How did he know she was the one going to London? GREMLIN most likely knew about Touma and her relation to him. But that didn't explain how the man in front of her, who unmistakably knew she would be here, had that kind of information.

"It seems we will arrive in five minutes. Just enough time to prepare the play.", Lucius dragged her out of her thoughts. By now he had drunk the whole glass and moved back towards the shelf he previously pulled out the mentioned glass.

"Play?", Kumiko asked, confused about the use of this term.

"Yes, a play. It will be wonderful, full of passion with a hint of drama. A careful composition made out of bittersweet moments."

Kumiko needed to add slight psychopathic to the list.

She felt like she was getting the tutoring in philosophy again which she received back during her 'training'. Question after question pooped up in her mind since she woke up on the ship, this time about the true nature of the 'play'. The only positive thing about her mind being occupied by the rush of questions was that she temporally forgot the state of her clothing or more the lack of. The redhead was so emerged in her thoughts that she didn't even noticed how the time flew by. She was snapped out of her thoughts by the same voice she seriously wanted to silence forever.

"I appears we have arrived.", the man in black and red spoke up. He walked towards Kumiko and past her, the throne turning with him. What she saw was something that made her fell a lump in her throat: Through a large window she got a 180 panorama view of London. After some moments Kumiko noticed the woman standing on her left side. She seemed to have lifeless eyes, like the ones one would most find on puppets. She wore a red, short dress and would be considered beautiful by most man: Black, long hair that seemed to flow down and lilac eyes.

"Marie, would you be so kind to lay a sound plate on the record player. Mozart's 'eine kleine Nachtmusik', please.", Lucius spoke to the woman in a cheery manner. She nodded as if she was a robot and moved out of Kumiko's view. Suddenly he slapped himself in the face and groaned before continuing in an exasperated manner.

"But where are my manners again? Let me introduce her: Her name is Marie Westerfeld; A homunculus I created. She was also the one who helped you with your clothes. Marie is Truly a masterpiece, wouldn't you say?"

A homunculus. That term was repeated again and again in Kumiko's brain. She had a hard time accepting the said word, a small voice in her head even telling her 'it's a lie'. Kumiko read a lot about magic and alchemy; understandable since she needed to fight against them in her former job on multiple occasions. To create a Homunculus was one of the seven wonders in the alchemy. No one, at least no one she read about, had managed to make a functional one for as long as alchemy exists. Which was quite a long time. And someone who was still in the first quarter of his life claimed that he managed to create one. Of course she was suspicious of him. But if it was true the man in front of her would be more dangerous than previously thought.

"Now, miss Kurokami, enjoy the show as long as it lasts."

Lucius pulled out a small iron stick and the same time was pushed up around 1 meter by a ascending platform underneath him. He went into a starting position of an conductor. With the sound of a record player being enabled and a needle set on a sound plate the music started. He moved the staff in accord to the music, the weapons of the ship beginning to fire at London in synch with his conducting. Buildings exploded and broke down and buried the citizens who were not fast enough underneath them. A stream of pure energy sliced the Big Ben in half, the now cut off top falling into the Thames before a projectile hit the London Eye, letting it fall apart.

All the time Kumiko could do nothing else than watch this city burn.

* * *

**So, guys; That was the fourth chapter of the Britannia Arc! With it the Arc slowly nears its end.**

**Fun fact: The last sentence and generally the whole chapter was inspired by the song 'City' from Hollywood Undead. The temptation was simply too great not to do it, it matched perfectly with the content I thought of for this chapter.**

**The guys of you with dirty anime minds who drive off in their thoughts because of the 'chained to the throne in nothing but undergarments'-thing: Stop thinking it right now! It will and has not happened! Not under my watch! this fanfic will stay a T as long as I have a say in the matter(which is till the end)!**

**So, nothing more to say at this point. Remember to leave a review!**

**And with that: I'm out; Bye!**


	13. Britannia Arc: Chapter 5

**_8 FREAKING MONTHS!_ If that is not a long time, I don't know what is! And I must apologize to those who waited for the next chapter(no matter how few you are): Sorry(forehead slams on the ground)!**

**I had, besides written exams arriving in waves to break my will to live[Seriously, who thinks that 8 of those in two and a half weeks, or 12 days, was a good idea?!] a seemingly depleted battery for creativity. And when I found some grain of creativity and write it down, of course afterwards my brain thinks 'Nope, does not fit well in the plot at this point' and so it goes into storage even if it was maybe acceptable.**

**Half of an college block; that is the amount of paper I have used up, written on both sides, to write down all the casted away ideas.**

**Sometimes I hate my brain...**

**But enough of my rant; let's get it out of the way, shall we?**

**The 'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**

**Sargent Crash: You have no idea what I have in storage for the coming arcs concerning characters. *insert the evil laugh of your choosing here***

**END**

_**And with that, enjoy!**_

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'To aru majutsu no index, only my OCs'!_

* * *

Max sat in a convoy made out of trucks. Just a 'single grunt' of GREMLIN, like his superior would word it.

He was part of the regular troops send by GREMLIN to attack England in general and, most importantly, London. They were halfway towards London but even though they managed to get this far there was no time for them to rest. Keep pushing. That was the order they had in the moment.

During the whole time since he and the others fought at the beach they were in a constant struggle to fend off the boy that literally smashed half their forces apart. The other half, which he was a part of, tried to get away from the monster and, at the same time, go to London.

Their leader was already working on the destruction of the city. Assisting the fortress to achieve this objective was, in his opinion, not needed. It simply was illogical to do so. But even though he and some others may believed there was no need for them to be part of the attack, orders were orders.

A loud resonating boom filled the air, overshadowing the sound of the engines coming from the trucks for a short moment. Max and most of the others looked back and saw a truck behind them flying up before hitting the ground hard when it fell down.

A dark silhouette stood on the now upwards pointing side of the truck. A very familiar silhouette. The same that emerged from the mist back in Dover. Suddenly It blurred and approached them. fast.

Max reacted at once: He sprung up and screamed in the drivers ear, "DODGE RIGHT!". He was not going to get killed by this... something hidden behind the body of a teenage boy.

Credits for the driver: He immediately complied with turning the wheel hard right. And that not a second too late: a blur past them before hitting another truck in front. It was send flying and landed on another one, making both unable to proceed.

That was no human; No human should be able to completely annihilate half of an army by himself. 'But this is of no importance right now', his superior would say. Accepting their fate Max sighed and he and the others lined their rifles up, aiming at the esper.

'This is going to be a long day.', and with this of his they pressed down the triggers and the ratter of weapons accompanied by the regular booms of explosions began to fill the area.

* * *

***BOOM***

That was all Lessar heard before she was flung through the room, hitting a wall with her back first, pressing the air out of her lungs. She coughed heavily and tried to get the precious air back into her lungs again. Something metallic tasting laced her tongue and a ring resonated in her ears. Her whole body protested to the slightest movement.

Groaning Lessar lifted her head up and, now for the first time since the explosion caused her impromptu travel, drifted her gaze through the room. Her vision swam a little and she felt slightly sick, but was still able to deduce most things about her current surroundings.

It looked like a scene coming straight out of an action film: the ceiling was broken in at one point, flames lingering on the now exposed wood which had served as the framework of the building. The right wall was completely destroyed, laying in form of chunks all across the floor.

Lessar shook her head to get the last of the disorientation out of her awareness before jumping up. Suddenly, after scanning the room again, she realized something. Something that brought her mind into a slight panic: Lancis had been only two meters away from the wall ripped apart by the explosion. The same girl who she didn't saw right now!

"LANCIS?! LANCIS, WHERE ARE YOU? ANSWER ME, DAMNIT!", she screamed into the chaos that was once one of their hideouts. No answer came. Growing even more hectic she hobbled through what was left of the room, looking for her comrade, someone Lessar considered a friend. She was about to give up her hope that the other girl survived, but then she heard a groan. A groan coming out of an mouth of an familiar girl.

Lighting fast Lessar turned towards the origin of the noise and speeded as fast she could towards it. There she found her: One arm stuck out of a pile of debris. Even though there was the possibility that Lancis could have multiple broken bones Lessar was still relieved: Something broken could be mended, something killed not.

"Hey, Lancis! Are you okay?!", she asked her, slowly starting to move pieces of debris away to get Lancis out of the pile. The girl under the pile groaned again, her head now after some lifting visible. She coughed once, twice before opening her eyes and looking at Lessar. The other girl stopped to take a breather. Let it never be said that lifting 25kg pieces of debris was something easily accomplishable with a hurt back.

"What walked over me?"

"Around half of a floor if I would guess."

This time Lancis blinked once, twice before nodding with an expression as if this answer held the same amount of wisdom as the words of a sage coupled with the same magnitude of meaning as 42.

she suddenly, more like finally, realized something and looked in an rather pleading manner at Lessar.

Her eyes becoming, unknowingly to the girl herself, larger and teared slightly up, Lessar suspecting the dust in the air being the reason. Finally, add to that a slightly trembling under lip and you have a good picture of her expression.

She could have melted any lesser being, but Lessar was able to resist due to much, much practice. And the fact that a tactic like that, no matter how good applied, wouldn't work on a professional handler of the same.

"...could you please help me out of here?"

* * *

For Bayloupe it wasn't hard to find the esper with the title of number 7; She only needed to follow the trail of wrecked trucks leading towards London.

The leader of New Light had a bad feeling about the whole situation, mainly because her connection with Lancis got interrupted. Add to that the fact that a rather large column of smoke was rising up from where London should be.

Even though she was exhausted and her mana supply had a rather big chunk of it already used up, Bayloupe pushed herself too her outmost limit, running all the way towards London along the trail of wreckages.

While going her not so merry way she heard a loud groan from one of the trucks. It stopped her dead in her tracks. Walking closer to the upside down truck Bayloupe found the origin: A young man around her age, give or take a year.

He was stuck between a deformed door and the ground, but still conscious. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have bothered herself for on single person. But this boy wore the same gear as the normal GREMLIN mercs.

Bayloupe took long strides towards the stuck male, purposely wiping her face of any emotion. Funny thing about interrogations: It was and is basically a power of wills; The one who shows any kind of weakness first will lose the battle.

Kneeling down she took his chin into one hand before lifting his head up, making eye contact. First confused then rather fearful, his eyes widened.

"Hey, what is your name?", she asked him in a deceptively calm voice. Something seemed to creep behind her like a slumbering monster. The male gulped before replying.

"Max Westermann, m'am."

"Thank you for your cooperation. Now, Listen here, Max; a very precious friend of mine got abducted by your so called leader: You will tell me everything you know and that now, immediately. Or you will start to lose parts of what is in your crotch area. Beginning with the left."

Max trembled in fear in front of this demon that had appeared before him and stood in front of a very important decision:

What was more important? This operation or his manhood? Not even a thing one needed to decide. So he opened his mouth and talked, trying to appease this demon in front of him. Inwardly he surrounded himself in self-pity.

'Why are all the persons I meet monsters or worse?'

* * *

Lessar and the now freed Lancis looked over the ruins this district of London had become. A seemingly endless field of destruction: Fire consuming everything, cries drifting through the air, corpses laying here and there, projectiles and beams hitting buildings and the ground, destroying anything in their area of impacts.

And once again they had the grim realization; The realization of what GREMLIN was able to do. And here they weren't even completely serious. Only half if not less of their resources got relocated into this operation.

Getting out of their trance both ran in different directions, about to help person who needed help, medical or other.

Then they saw something that could be described with many different words: honorable, brave, reckless, dumb, all together or simply... Gunha.

And the same boy, the number 7 of AC, the guts-obsessed idiot Kumiko has brought with her flew with flattering jacket towards the flying fortress above London. One may say with such an attack it would be impossible to succeed, but for Gunha the word 'impossible' didn't seem to exist.

Lucius got interrupted in the middle of his 'play' by an explosion on the left side of the room. He ceased the movements and both his and Kumiko's eyes immediately focused on the hole that was created by said explosion. At first they didn't perceive anything abnormal after the initial blast but then they heard a scream. A scream which got louder and louder with every second past. A very familiar one.

"KUUUUUUUMMMMMMIIIIIIIIKOOOOOOOOOO!"

Following the scream a Gunha came flying through the hole with an dynamic entry. Under normal circumstances she would be extremely embarrassed by her current state but not in this specific kind of situation: In this moment, she was more grateful and happy than anything. Mainly because he could free her from this damn throne.

The very moment he took her in his view his scream became a pile of sputters. Despite his 'normal' behavior and despite the impression others had of him Gunha was still a young man. So when he saw Kumiko in nothing but her undergarments plus having the perfect angle to look her right in the cleavage his mind turned a whole 180.

His fly switched from stable to unstable, Gunha now sailing with flailing arms uncontrolled through the room. It ended as abruptly as it began with his face being planted into the wall on the other side of said room where he began to slowly slide down the wall. Gunha stopped when he reached the floor and stayed there in form of a pile of limbs for a few seconds, face still connected with the wall.

Gunha finally jumped up and whirled around, facing Kumiko. He took her in a second time and a cross of confusion and embarrassment alike washed over his face.

"What is with that gutless state you are in?", he asked her with a completely incredulous expression on his face. Kumiko's reaction was to turn beet red and shout a response.

"S-SHUT UP! DON'T LOOK THAT WAY!"

Gunha's head snapped so fast into another direction it was a wonder he hadn't got a whiplash. In the meantime Kumiko had an emotional breakdown because of something else besides being seen in her undergarments by a familiar face. This also showed on her face when it morphed into one of horror.

'Oh god, I sounded like the railgun there!'

But the drama that would have followed both reactions was short-lived: A certain, now really angered alchemist squashed it before it could do so.

"The number 7; Nice to finally meet you in person.", the voice of him let to believe he meant the complete opposite to the spoken sentence. Drawing Gunha's attention to him he continued while he walked slowly towards him.

"I'm really sorry to inform you that you are not on the guest list of this ship. Please be so considerate and leave this place, or better, this world."

He snapped with his fingers once. The reaction was spontaneous: Parts of the destroyed wall flew up, formed into pitch black lances, swords or bolts and were sent flying towards Gunha with a hand motion, being only narrowly dodged by the intended target.

"You know,", Lucius began while a sword, hilt up, formed itself out of the a nearby piece of debris before he grabbed it. This sword too was matt black and seemed to absorb the light around it.

"Alchemy is such a useful tool. The mix of magic and science. Based on parting and reconfiguration; The limit only being ones imagination."

Gunha pressed his foot into the ground and shoot towards his opponent. But what happened next astonished both esper: Gunha was stopped midair midflight, floating there unable to move an inch. The alchemist simply smiled cheerfully as he continued his lazy walk towards Gunha.

"It appears even an esper of your caliber gets stopped by this kind of cage; Good to know."

Kumiko looked closely at the seemingly levitating Gunha. There was nothing that could be called a cage or anything that could restrict him. But even though her eyes couldn't perceive it, there needed to be something. Her mind speeded through all possibilities linked with what she saw of Lucius' ability.

'He spoke of reconfiguration. Maybe some type of atomic structure control? But this would still not be enough to stop a Level 7, would it? There has to be another component, one necessary for it to work. But what?'

"Now, let's proceed with a crescendo to come to the grand finale."

Lucius lifted the sword up before slashing at Gunha. The #7 couldn't dodge, gotten completely immobilized by whatever the alchemist did, the sword cutting his chest open. Gunha's and Kumiko's eyes widened as blood gushed out of the wound, forming a short arc in the air.

For the red head time seemed to slow down as the something holding Gunha up let him go, the #7 hitting the ground. But Kumiko didn't cry, shout out or grieved. She knew something Lucius didn't.

"GUNHA! STAND UP DAMNIT!"

But despite her expectations He didn't move. No flexing, no twitching, nothing. That was not how it was supposed to be. He was supposed to stand up like all the other times. Lucius huffed in amusement whilst turning around and began walking towards the hole in the wall.

"You know,...", the all so familiar voice behind him let the alchemist freeze in his tracks. 'This is not possible', was the only thought crossing Lucius mind. He slowly turned on his axis and saw something he thought to be impossible: The #7 was standing! And more so: There was no wound!

The clothes were cut, yes; Blood was smeared over the younger male's chest, yes; But there was no cut on this chest of his, not even a scratch!

"If it weren't for the current situation at hand, I would congratulate you for your gutsy ability."

Lucius' face was frozen in a look of shock and surprise, but quickly overtaken by one of anger.

"If you believe that your sudden... revival will change the outcome you are gravely mistaken. Fact is that you...,", he said in a slightly trembling voice, the espers not knowing if anger or panic or both has been the cause.

"...have no options that you could choose from in order to come out on top of this conflict."

The sword in the alchemist's hand changed its form, becoming a multitude of golf ball-sized ovals. He made a down motion with his raised hand having previously the hold on the former sword, causing the ovals to hail down on Gunha. They hit their mark, being faster than Gunha or Kumiko could see.

The force of the impacts was big enough to fling the target through the room, the projectiles imbedded into his body. Gunha crashed back-first into the wall again, changing the cupboard into a pile of debris.

Alcoholic liquids rinsed down his body as he walked out of the smoke screen which got created on impact, no holes on his whole body in sight.

"Looks like my guts are really not enough to beat you yet."

Gunha's voice could only be described as calm and serious; Something you think you would never be able to witness in your lifetime twice.

"What is your ability, scoundrel?! A human should not be able to do such things; esper, magician or not!"

The boy didn't answer, instead he jumped towards Lucius at such a tremendous speed that it caused a sonic boom. But again, as if the laws of physics were changing only for the alchemists favor, the #7 was stopped dead in his tracks by seemingly nothing; As if The laws of physics didn't apply anymore.

"It's futile."

Kumiko would have made a comment in the direction of 'That's such a cliché line' if not for her efforts to somehow free herself from the throne she was seated on. Sadly it was to no avail.

"You have a truly impressive healing ability, even more so when you take in consideration what I use to inflict damage.", the alchemist walked around the still levitating Gunha, looking at him like you would at an truly fascinating specimen. Which wasn't really far from the truth. in more ways than one.

"I wonder what would happen if your whole body was covered."

Action followed immediately the words: A black... something began coating Gunha who struggled and struggled to free himself, but couldn't do so. Whatever was holding him was simply to strong, to durable to get broken by him. More and more of his body got covered, until his form was simply a dark silhouette hanging midair.

She had no other possible option. Or, to be more precise, she couldn't think of any other option. No other way of action besides that what she was about to do. She focused her attention on the still completely impassive homunculus standing on the exact same spot she was standing the whole time.

"Free me! MARIE!"

What followed next was completely baffling and unexpected. Not the kind of baffling you had that caused you to think 'WTF!' and tempting you to make a retort, but close: The homunculus complied.

With a face that was still void of any emotions Marie walked towards her without any haste or slouching before touching a small glowing dot floating just 10 centimeters to the left of the throne. How Kumiko hadn't seen that before was quite weird.

With a hissing sound the energy forming the bindings dissipated, making Kumiko a free girl again. The same girl who looked at the artificial human with disbelieve. Lots and lots of disbelieve.

"Didn't think that would actually work.", Kumiko muttered while standing up and rushing towards Gunha. And even now she couldn't use her ability as if a plug was stuck in the figurative pipe that was the release for her personal reality.

"I was created to serve primarily you.", was the answer she got back, spoken in this infuriating emotionless way. A quick look from Kumiko in the direction of Lucius told her that he miraculously didn't notice what has happened.

In this moment she realized something:; For the first time in her life, or more the part of it she was conscious about, Kumiko was truly and utterly helpless. What could she do without her ability?

'Nothing', a voice whispered in the back of her mind.

'Nothing; you can't help your friend. You could never help anyone.'

'Shut up!'

* * *

Gunha was surrounded by darkness. He could see nothing, smell nothing, only able to feel something otherworldly but at the same time strangely familiar touching his skin. But at the moment he had a more pressing matter: Gunha couldn't breathe.

He struggled and struggled against the bindings, stemming all his guts against this prison of his. It wasn't enough. Whatever he was captured in, he couldn't break. Not even with all his current Guts.

Deprived of more and more oxygen, his consciousness more and more slipping. Then, his mind became as dark as the cocoon surrounding him. Then suddenly, there was light.

A completely white plane. That was the only way one could have described the Place. Nothing to see for what appeared to be a endless space.

"Where am I?"

And right in the middle of it stood a lonely Gunha, totally confused. He was by no means able to comprehend: The first second he was stuck in the middle of something completely black, the next he was standing here, in the middle of a white plane.

Striking a thinking pose Gunha closed his eyes and concentrated... and concentrated... and concentrated... and didn't come up with an answer.

"Well, aren't you an energetic one?"

Wait. Did he himself say that? Or someone else? These questions were floating through the #7's mind.

Or maybe he had a to him unknown split personality, a personification of his guts that is now finally talking to him. What possibilities could this unlock for him; to be able to learn from his own guts about getting more and/or bigger guts...

The same voice began chuckling.

"You are definitely an interesting one above anything else."

'So are you, oh guts of mine.'

"Turn around.", the amusement was literally oozing of at this point. And as the voice told him to do, Gunha turned around and faced... an average looking blond man in his mid-thirties. The face of Gunha was one of complete and utter confusion...again. Following that was one of awe.

"So this is how my guts look like..."

"I must disappoint you, but I'm not your 'guts' as you call it. It actually doesn't matter who I am, so don't strain your brain to figure out an answer."

"Then... why are you here? Maybe to tell me the way of the guts in a better, deeper way?"

The man huffed out in amusement and sat down on a chair... Wait a minute!

"Since when was there a chair?!"

"Since now."

"How?"

"It simply is."

"Really?"

"Really."

"How gutsy!"

Silence filled now the space, both males looking at each other; one smirking, the other simply grinning. After ten seconds the blonde huffed again before opening his mouth. All the while he began a wild gesticulation.

"You're in a real pinch, aren't you? I mean, it doesn't seem to go so smoothly for you. But that would also be the exact reason why you are even here."

"Wait... AM I DEAD?!", Gunha yelled from the top of his lungs. That would be simply an outrage; By far he had not enough accumulated guts in his lifetime. Gunha, too, began to gesticulate wildly.

"Of course not. But if I would explain what exactly this place is, you wouldn't understand what exactly I would talk about."

"Ah... could you still?", the only answer Gunha got was a sigh before the older one answered, accompanied with a flourish hand motion.

"Let's just call it the in-between before the afterlife."

Gunha started smiling like an idiot, completely content with this answer before he shoot the next question.

"And why are you here?"

"Good question!", the blonde clapped wildly before leaning back and tacking a sip from the up to now nonexistent mug in his right hand. After a very long one he sighed in content. Speaking up he began to spin a pencil in his left hand, appearing in the same manner like the chair and mug. His whole person was one of complete and utter nonchalance and Gunha stopped questioning from where all these items were coming from.

"I am here to help you a little. Your time as a human -which I can ensure you can and will run out, basically dying- has not come to an end at this point yet. You still need to accomplish something. What this something is, I will not tell you. But I can say with certainty, it is there.", all of this was said as if he talked about the weather.

"This stage did not go as well as planned, but it is still salvageable. The only reason why I am even consider helping you in the first place, mind you."

"Getting your help would not be really gutsy."

"Suck it up and listen: I'm gonna give you some... guts as you like to call it. Or more like a so small amount that it doesn't even matter to me. Barely enough to win this teeny weenie dispute."

"There is nothing teeny weenie about this: It's a matter of gut and gutless!"

Gunha was simply waved off.

"Whatever swims your boat; I call it as I see it. And now, do what you need to do. On a small side note: Please manage it in ten minutes max; Have some bets going."

And as suddenly as Gunha was transported into this place, he was pushed out again without the possibility of saying anything else.

* * *

***BOOM***

That was the only thing everyone could sense. They heard it's noise, they felt it's incomprehensible power, they saw it's blinding light, they smelled it and tasted it's raw being. It was utterly strange; How could you taste and smell an explosion itself? It was out of this world.

At the same time, the darkness which previously still surrounded Gunha was blown away; Like a thin piece of cloth in a hurricane it was ripped apart into thousand little pieces by the blinding wave of light that washed through the whole room. Anyone outside could watch as the white flowed out of the windows like a monsoon and forced everyone to cover their eyes.

After it subsided every single soul inside of the flying fortress stared at the origin which was Gunha in awe, shock an wonder. He was different: His eyes glowed in an warm blue and a shroud of pure power flowed over his skin like lighting in every color of the light spectrum. It was absolutely oppressive; Nothing Kumiko has sensed from him before was comparable but in one aspect: It still held the same warmth.

Gunha looked at his hands in wonder; Blood pounded through his veins, spiced to an ridiculous amount with adrenaline. He felt awesome, better than ever. And more importantly:

"My guts... _**ARE OVER 9000!**_"

Silence. At least until Kumiko broke it with a fond "Idiot.".

Not really realizing Kumiko's voice because of the pounding in his ears, Gunha brought his focus on the shellshocked Lucius Schwarzeiche. Clenching his fists once again he got into his signature fighting stance.

"That is not possible!"

The alchemist began to pace while shouting this exclamation, ruffling his hair in an agitated way, all the way mumbling something barely understandable.

"How?! How could he achieve that? HOW?!"

"With Guts; Lots and lots of guts.", and with that Gunha vanished into nothingness only to appear in front of the alchemist. As if in slow motion he pulled back his fist while he. Reality itself seemed to crack and shudder and bend and warp and twist under the immense power, the unperceivable gigantic energy gathering in his fist. More than anyone of them has ever perceived.

Then he let the fist lose.

* * *

Lessar and Lancis could only see the flying fortress as it suddenly ruptured into thousands upon thousands of pieces under the immense pressure they have felt building up. For a moment the earth, air and even reality itself shook in Great Britain. Incomprehensible, it was. What in god's name could do something like that?

As they watched both saw four silhouettes falling towards the ground. One of them pressed a foot against a near piece of debris, shooting itself towards another one and caught it bridal style. Most likely Gunha and Kumiko. They and another one corrected their fall, landing safely besides impacting debris crushing into the ruins that was ones a residential block of London.

They could only think about the same as everyone else of the defending forces that were able to: Run towards the crash site.

* * *

Kumiko looked down at Lucius who laid in front of her on the ground. Not really a nice sight, but one Kumiko grew accustomed to since long ago: His right side having a really nasty and big flesh wound, his face obscured with blood. Part of his ribs laid bare, a metal pipe had pierced his chest and the red liquid kept pouring out of the openings. If he wouldn't have protected himself with his alchemy in the moment's notice, Lucius would most likely not be whole anymore.

After she, Gunha and Marie had landed safely, they separated; Whilst Gunha and Kumiko went to the position Lucius has landed, Marie simply vanished in the field of ruins and debris. Gunha showed no signs of the power anymore; As if he depleted all of it in that last attack.

"Why?", he asked her with a now raspy voice. His eyes had something in them, something completely surprising for Kumiko: Betrayal. He believed whole heartily that she has betrayed him with the things she did.

"I'm not really angry for what you tried with me. I'm not a hypocrite, I won't take it personal. After all, I did deeds as cruel and brutal as you, if not more. You only were selfish with what you wanted for me. The only thing to be angry about is that you killed 'innocent' civilians.", Kumiko began softly. Her voice had something heavy, worn out because of what happened in the short time she wandered through this world. It was the same one people who have seen too much for one lifetime had.

"But what I did was for you, not for me! For you and mankind! I wanted nothing from it!", Lucius' voice became weaker with each spoken word. His resolve crumbled the more he listened to the redhead along with his strength.

"That was not a selfless act you did here.", her word only let the crumbling get faster and faster. She sighed softly at the sight of a man whose mental state became worse and worse before she began to spoke further.

"Let me tell you something: I don't believe in selflessness. All humans are selfish. There is no exception for this rule. Be it land, power, money, pity, sympathy, empathy, joy, a partner, a lover, a friend; Anything a human does is for a reason. He wants to gain something, even if this something is simply the gratitude given by others or the satisfaction one may get from. You wanted me as the savior for the human race out of your own reasons. What you did is the same as what I do for my brother: It's my own selfishness that brings me to do what I do in order to give my brother what I think is best for him. I don't even take his opinion on the matter. So I'm not really better than you in this regard. But what you are longing for makes the thing I long for impossible. That's the sole reason why I fought and will fight in the future, against you and possible others. Though to be precise, the wish to uphold the peace my brother has was the sole reason until you started to slaughter the innocent who don't know of the darkness shrouding this world."

Kumiko fell silent after the speech and looked at the alchemist. Her face was completely void of any kind of emotion. Seeing that Lucius hadn't much time and began to cough up blobs of blood she walked closer to him on unsteady feet and leaned down.

"I have a last question for you: Who gave you the information about me? Who told you I would be in Britain?", she asked him in a impassive sounding voice, barely a whisper. Kumiko needed this information more than she let on.

Not being a part of AC's information network anymore meant she had no idea which dangers were lurking nearby her brother. Or herself, if this incident did not spoke volumes that the possibility that these kind of events can and will happen was there.

"GREMLIN received the information in form of a tip from an anonymous benefactor three days ago. He gave us for identification only what appeared to be a codename: Latrihex.", Lucius answered between wheezes. His time grew shorter and shorter with each passing moment.

"I think this is where we part ways.", Kumiko stated. The man could not live on more than 5 minutes in his state and she had not the necessary skills or the will to save him. He killed hundreds of innocents and this was the price he needed to pay.

But fate seemed to want it a different way. Well, more like a single person than fate though the impact on the situation was still the same. At this very moment Laura Stuart entered the scene, followed by multiple knights and New Light minus Floris who was still out, and like always, always completely disrupted the natural order of the events.

Without sparing even one of the two espers a glance she walked straight in front of the downed Lucius. Checking him over she nodded to herself before gesturing to one of the knights to heal the alchemist who complied if not a little hesitant.

All the time Kumiko could not help but gape at her. All the fighting, all the happenings, anything that transpired was about to end, and this woman simply waltzed into it and turned this end of the whole invasion upside down, saving the enemy leader. After a few seconds she finally managed to say something.

"What do you think you're doing, Stuart?"

"Saving one really important well of information. What do you think I do?"

Kumiko bit her lip. Of course Stuart would aim for something like that. Any information about GREMLIN was well worth it, and coming from a high up it was even more so. Besides, being no agent of AC anymore, she decided to not kill if not necessary. This decision was loosely at best, yes, and not one she was proud of but she could not simply change her very nature that crystallized over the last 5 years of her live.

While the knight did his work Kumiko strolled towards the member of New Light, followed by an overly protective seeming Gunha. Stopping before Bayloupe she pulled her in a bear hug with all the strength she could muster. This whole event consumed much more energy from her then was showed.

"Thank god you pulled it off without any injuries.", Kumiko whispered, nearly breaking out in tears. The only thing that stopped her was her iron will not to cry in front of others. She seriously needed to deal with this new aptitude of emotions and that fast.

Finally releasing the older girl Kumiko stepped back and grinned at her.

"God? Since when did you start to believe in deities?", Bayloupe quirked an eyebrow at her, together with a seriously crooked smirk.

"Since never. Just happened to be the right thing to say at the moment. You know, surrounded by church members, the usual. But something different: Where is Floris?", Kumiko asked, concern lacing her voice. She damned her maternal instincts. The clouding expressions of the other three girls didn't help at all for that matter.

"She was... shot in the side by an anti-material rifle. Though her barriers took most of the brunt of the force. she didn't wake up till now and won't be up for at least a week, even with the usage of magic. The bullet was enchanted, hindering all magical efforts.", Bayloupe told her grimly. That was so not good.

"And... how many casualties?", Kumiko questioned her. She dreaded the answer, was literally terrified by the thought of it. But she needed to hear this.

"The counting is still not completed and we have only gone through around half the debris, but the current numbers, despite the evacuation, are... 1203 heavily wounded, 960 lightly and... 435 deaths."

The answer hit her like a wall. Her breathing hitched, she thought she would suffocate. Grabbing her head with her hands she staggered a little.

'Oh god! So many deaths! So many deaths, all because of me! It's my fault. My fault. If I, if I wouldn't have been here...', her thoughts stopped abruptly when a pair of hands grabbed both of her shoulders. A firm but still not hurting grip.

"Breathe, girl, breath. Come on, focus on me. Yeah, like that", Bayloupe's words ringed in her ears. Kumiko did as instructed but still looked with wide opened eyes at her, a terrified expression on her face.

Worry was now ever present in Bayloupe's mind: To see Kumiko break down like that, a person who was supposed to be a pillar of control, of reassure; Even though the older girl knew of Kumiko's new condition, she couldn't wrap her mind around the red head being almost if not petrified by despair, by terror. Angry? Yes. Enraged? Yes. But petrified?

"Listen here, Miko:", Bayloupe began with a slow and steady voice, trying and succeeding in calming the younger one somewhat down. She was using the red heads nickname, something she did not often, a testament for how serious this whole thing was for her.

"You did not kill a single one of them, you are not the cause of even one single citizen's death and you are not at fault. All of this...", Bayloupe waved with one arm over the field of destruction surrounding them: "... Was not because of you. They would have attacked with or without you being here. Instead you made it better; If not for you, many more would have lost their lives. Do you understand?"

Kumiko couldn't open her mouth, her throat felt restricted. But she managed to calm down and breath normally again. She simply nodded for an answer. Bayloupe smiled warmly in response before leading her away. She needed to somehow bring the flame head's thoughts into another direction.

"Let's get you some clothes since you didn't bring some yourself with you from AC, ne? Then a good night of rest together with your boyfriend and you can fly back to watch over your precious little brother."

Kumiko said nothing, didn't even react and simply let herself being dragged away by the other girl. She was too damn exhausted to retort at this point. But now that her episode was over and Kumiko could think straight again she remembered something noticed by her before and decided to voice it out.

"Bayloupe, I think I need to stay here for the time being."

"Why is that?"

"I had kind of an overload and because of that my ability doesn't work in the moment. Would be too dangerous to return to Academy City in this state."

"WHAT?!", Kumiko ignored the outbursts, being already submerged in her own little world. There was one little question nagging her like a itching nose. One she could not get rid of. One she thought to be fairly important.

'Latrihex, Latrihex... what is that supposed to stand for, I wonder...'

The whole time she thought about it and was in her own little world, Bayloupe tried to get the younger girl to talk to her.

"HEY, Kumiko! That is not something you can say in an 'by the way'-way! OI! KUMIKO!"

* * *

Inside the windowless building Aleister Crowley ended the video he got from Britain.

That didn't go like planed but it was no serious hindrance, only an unimportant delay. He simply needed to switch to Pl-A132. 144 additional plans for the following scenarios were still on standby, ready to be chosen from if Pl-A132 would not work. In the end all will fall into its meant place.

"Are you sure this is a wise decision, Crowley?", a man asked the Superintend of Academy City, pulling him out of his thoughts. He focused on the man who spoke them with an soft sounding voice, a hint of madness hidden behind it. The only thing that could be seen was a silhouette and that said person wore a lab coat.

"I'm fairly sure. She needs to be dealt with. This is a crucial step to ensure the complete success of all my efforts until now. There is no other option."

"I understand. But... these results we got from her last Bio scan were... fairly interesting. If I am allowed I would like to conduct some tests on her before she will be disposed of.", the man asked, his silky voice filled with barely restrained anticipation.

All his efforts until now, all the answers he wanted, NO, he needed, were laying inside this body of hers. He couldn't let this chance simply slip by. He couldn't even begin to imagine the wonders coming with it.

Aleister looked at him for some seconds, appearing to be deeply in thought. But inside his mind he smiled a devious smile. Exactly what he wanted the other to ask him. Everything was still going after plan.

"Very well, do what you want so dearly. But remember to eliminate her when you are done."

"Of course.", the man grinned, filled with sick scientific curiosity. Finally the time to harvest the fruits of his half a century long work came.

"If you would excuse me, I have a lot to prepare."

Crowley smiled at him even when the other turned around and walked out of the room. A smile that seemed so out of the world, a unknown emotion hidden behind it.

"I look forward to see your coming reports, Kihara-kun."

* * *

Kumiko and Gunha stood side by side in the hotel room he had previously rented. Surprisingly the hotel survived the onslaught like through a wonder. A eerie silence surrounded them, so thick that you could slice it with a knife.

Gunha was nervous, insanely even. The silence bothered him to no end but he didn't dare to speak up. One look to the side showed him Kumiko's completely blank face and his guts told him: Right decision!

After another couple of seconds, which felt like hours to Gunha, Kumiko, who had the clothes to change they got in their arms, in Kumiko's case from Bayloupe and in Gunha's from a male of the Amakusa, spoke up without looking at him.

"Gunha."

It hold no hostility or fury in it. It was just a single word spoken in a neutral voice. But even though it held no menacing undertone Gunha's reaction was instantaneous: One second Gunha was still standing beside her, the next he was sitting seiza-style on the ground, facing her direction with a bowed head. On a conscious level he didn't know why he did it, he simply reacted. It was like the natural instinct of a male for self preservation.

"What is that?", Kumiko continued in the same manner. To emphasize her point she waved her arm through the room.

"A room.", Gunha replied. It was the most logical thing he could think of right now, but as it didn't seem to draw any reaction out of the redhead he began to panic: he knew that Kumiko was upset. That was something as clear as day to him. But why?! Why was she agitated?! Did he do something wrong and, if yes, what?!

"I clearly remember saying '_one_ room, _two separate_ beds'.", Kumiko draw in his undivided attention. She said it in a deceptively calm voice as if talking about the weather. But Gunha's guts told him: Be cautious, there is a storm brooding.

" I said, and that I'm hundred percent sure of, '_One_ room, _two separate_ beds', not '_one_ room, _**one king-sized**_ bed'."

Gunha scanned the room again. And yes, there was a single king-sized bed. And yes, now that he tried to remember because of the pressure he currently was under, Kumiko did say that.

"So why is there one instead of two?", Kumiko questioned him. But look out, there was a catch: The question was no question: It was an order which, if not answered truthfully, would open the gates of hell.

Even though he knew that Kumiko still couldn't use her ability, somehow he and his guts still believed it. So Gunha obeyed, with his life on the line: He answered with the truth in a sheepish and at the same time apologetic manner.

"I kinda forgot to mention it. You know, when I booked it."

Time seemed to stand still when Gunha waited with now closed eyes for the unavoidable nightmare that was about to get unleashed. But besides a very long sigh nothing came. He opened his eyes slowly in a hesitant manner and lifted his head to see a more exhausted than angry Kumiko standing there, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Well, whatever. I'm too beat to care at the moment so you are forgiven this time."

_**BANZAI FOR HIS GUTS! HE WAS SAVE!**_

"I'm going to take a shower. Don't come in the bathroom under any circumstances as long as I'm in there or you will regret it.", Kumiko continued whilst giving off a little menacing intent and made a scissor like motion with her hand while going into the bathroom, letting Gunha gulp and tremble a little. No male could be okay after hearing this kind of threat spoken with such intent. He decided there was no point in simply standing and so he decided to sat down on the right side of the bed.

The door closed behind Kumiko and after a couple of minutes the sound of a shower could be heard. Gunha couldn't help but drive off in his thoughts. He stopped it as fast as it came and tried his best not to think about it. Such thoughts were gutless things.

After for Gunha 15 very long minutes Kumiko came out of the bathroom in dark grey pajamas, consisting out of a t-shirt and sweatpants. She had a towel around her neck while the hairpin and -tie was out of her still a little wet hair, letting it fall down freely.

She moved with sluggish movements to the left and still unoccupied side of the bed and let herself fall face down, throwing away the towel in the process. After some seconds past Kumiko turned her head towards Gunha, the exhaustion now written all over her face, also laying in her voice.

"Gunha, as long as you stay on your side of the bed we are ok.", and with that groggily spoken words Kumiko drifted off in her dreams. The black haired boy looked at her deep sleeping form before making himself ready in the bath, changed into his sleeping wear and then he too laid down but on the far end of right side. Never wake up a sleeping lion, worse a lioness. After he dozed for a few minutes he finally drifted off in his sleep.

* * *

***Next morning***

Gunha was a very special individual who wasn't really the 'norm'. That was something he himself realized rather early in his life.

He had a very, very unique and creative mind and even though his logic was simple and completely foreign to most, it was still somewhat sound. But even he could not understand why he was in this current situation.

Gunha was the typical morning person: The moment his eyes opened he was a bundle of endless energy.

But right now this energy was constricted, not because he couldn't use it: No, it was restricted because if he would dare to use it Gunha would face something worse than hell: A slender arm and leg were slung over him while the body they were attached to was pressed lightly into his left side.

He turned his head to the side and ended up face to face with Kumiko. A slight blush began crawling over his face, even though he didn't know for sure why. Most males would be envious of him not that he knew something about it.

Now that he was laying there, and because he could do nothing else, Gunha began trying to find something that would be a reason for the situation at hand, he realized that in the span of the last days the moments where hell was too close for comfort has exponentially increased. He heard a soft groan coming from the her mouth, letting him breath sharply in: Now was the moment of truth: Would he survive or getting chewed out?

...

Kumiko was by all means no morning person.

She had a constantly low blood pressure. That was one of the reasons why she was your typical heat-seeker. While under normal circumstances her ability kept her body under the right temperature, at the moment it didn't. The reason was the ability overload Kumiko temporally suffered from.

So she headed in her sleep automatically to the biggest heat source nearby to warm up, who was, in that case, Gunha. And in this position she found herself the moment she woke up and opened her eyes: Hugging the side of Gunha like a little child would hug it's life-sized teddy bear or dakimura.

Though her eyes were half-closed at the beginning they opened considerably once she realized were exactly she was. Under normal circumstances she would have realized that in this specific night she had no nightmares. But out of luck or bad luck, completely related to the point of view, she could not think of this specific detail: Redness crawled over her face, mirroring Gunha's in an amplified form, and panic began to fill her eyes.

She jumped away with a cry of embarrassment. Too bad Kumiko didn't take the size of the bed into account and landed on the floor with the back of her head first.

After some seconds Kumiko's head resurfaced and peeked over the edge of the bed at Gunha. The next ten seconds the air was filled with an awkward, if not the most awkward atmosphere, in which nobody, neither Gunha or Kumiko, gave off any sound besides the sound of breathing. Finally Kumiko opened her mouth followed by words.

"We will not tell anyone what has transpired here. Ever."

He could only nod as answer. But one thing was still bugging him. Something that didn't want to let go.

"Sooo... _what did Lesley think 'bonding with guts' means_?"

* * *

Somewhere in Academy City someone stood on a balcony, leaning against the wall separating said balcony from the dorm room. Giving of an tired sigh, he leaned his head back and locked up into the starry sky. His intervention in London was maybe not something he should have done, orders or not.

"Sorry, Miko-chan, for putting you through so much trouble."

* * *

**Damn, this chapter is literally oozing with hints. Big, red and yellow clouds, I tell you! But well, at some point everyone has this in their stories. And I enjoy foreshadowing, so bear with me. With that, this Arc also came to an end.**

**Personally I think this fight was too short and ended too abruptly, but concerning the latter I saw no other way to implement the important things/hints/info for the story without making Gunha go 'Hellsing/Alucard'-style in the end. The ending itself was pretty rushed.**

**The shipping was rather strong in this chapter and I couldn't help it: once the ideas were in my head they didn't want to leave! I also tried to bring in the idea that no matter what an idiot Gunha is, he is still a boy in his middle/late teens. Something I don't know if it was lore-friendly, but meh; My story.**

**And now, after reading through the whole thing again, I realize: I have watched too many animes where females threaten the testicles of males...**

**Please feel free to write a comment or review or whatever floats your boat!**

**And with that, I'm out(with hopefully recharged creativity)!Bye!**


	14. CASTLE Arc: Chapter 1

**Welcome back and god damn am I glad my muse has returned once more! Seriously, I'm freakin' glad to finally be able to write things down in a for me acceptable pace(and yes, I'm a self-critical person.)!**

**You will find that this chapter is a little out of the story line that it had followed before and I hope that you will enjoy it nevertheless.**

**The 'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**

**Sargent Crash: First of all, glad you liked it and you know what they say about when fist hits the fan... okay I admit that one was bad. The plans over plans-thing is seriously messed up to be true here as well as a pain in the *** to plot, but whatever: At least with that I get the chance to say that it is almost a planception! Now, after this stupid little pun, let's continue with this idea you have for the blonde man: Let's just say: you're right and at the same time wrong about him(cryptic answers for the win! *MUHAHAHAHA*). Additionally to that, awesome that you ship it! And now finally, a last thing I have to say: Glad I could inject you with some guts to bring your motivation to the next level!**

**RPGFanatic: It makes me happy that you enjoy this fanfic and are still following it after all this time that past between the 13th chapter and 12th chapter. secondly, thanks for your understanding for the delay, even though I'm still beating myself up for that(figuratively of course...).**

_**And now, without further ado, enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: 'I do not own To Aru Majutsu no Index', only my OCs's!**_

* * *

Kureno was walking through the streets of district 15 without a real care in the world. He was really content and at peace with anything right now. Though it was a little regrettable that his sister had been away in London for the last week, it was somewhat refreshing: His sister was very nice, caring and forthcoming, but sometimes her often in mother hen-like evolving behavior that showed that she cared was a little bothering at times.

Besides that, living with Percy was probably the most notable, interesting and fun temporary change for the past week. Playing video-games as much as he likes, eating as much fast-food as he likes, and, most importantly, not getting controlled at least ten times the day.

His sister really should learn to stop being such a worrywart. And control freak. And Mother hen. And...

All the sudden his phone began to ring which broke him out of his chain of thoughts. Thankfully, he silently added. Somehow his sister always knew when he had such thoughts about her which ultimately ended for him ending in a guilt trip.

Taking said phone out and looking at the display, Kureno immediately identified the number on the screen. His good mood raised again by a big margin. Accepting the call he moved the phone to his ear and spoke up in English without stopping his stroll.

"Hi, Eko. How is it?"

"Actually, pretty good. And are you again using a phone call to train your English skills?", a young female voice answered in a cheery manner, also in English.

Murasaki Eko was an old friend of his. She was 13, Lv4, half a year older than him and the first person Kureno met and befriended after he was hit by the amnesia. Like her surname, she simply loved the color purple and had various things in or with this color, the most important one being her trusty wireless headphones Eko had on her all the time, be it loosely hanging around her neck or actually using it.

"My sister will behead me if I did nothing of that kind in her absence, so yeah, I do. I'm not suicidal, thank you."

About her personality... that was something Kureno didn't like to get to much into. She was fun to be around, yes, didn't push her beliefs onto you, yes, was a good listener, yes, but there was one slight problem...

"Oh, don't worry. I know plenty about the way your sister is. You talk to me about her many times, remember? Or is your brain slowly becoming _forgetting_?"

she had a terrible sense of humor.

"Hahaha, really funny. I'm laughing myself to death.", came his flat response before he couldn't keep up his facade and grinned slightly. If one had a friend like that, you grinned simply for the sake of grinning when a bad pun came. Even if it was a rather dark one and/or at your costs.

"Now, I feel honored that you called me in your oh so precious 'alone time', but what is the true reason? Surely not a simple talk or you would have send a mail for a meeting instead. Considering you prefer to talk with others in person if you simply want to kill time with them, or in this case, me."

Kureno could imagine the slightly flustered look on her face quite easily; Even though she was predictable, if only for those who knew her, Eko still didn't like nor wanted to accept that fact. But whatever retort she had was obviously held back, a sigh on the other end being the sign for it. Instead she answered in a more than little serious voice.

"Something came up; Meeting up around 3pm at Joseph's?"

The tone alone told him this was something important. Looking at a nearby clock and seeing that it was 2pm, a whole hour till the proposed meeting time, he had enough time to finish what he had planned as well as making it in time to Joseph's.

"Roger that. Till then, I believe? I mean, if you had nothing else you wanted to talk about..."

"Yeah, need to prepare some things before that, sooooo... bye, tehe~.", and with that she hung up.

'Tehe my a- NO, DON'T THINK IT!'

His sister had some kind of sensor for whatever and whenever he was swearing as well, which would later hunted him in form of repercussions. A lot of repercussions. Something he was under no means keen to receive and reasoning with his sister about it was in vain.

But whatever, he shouldn't think of such things right now. Because Kureno was in this very moment a man with a mission. And so, holding himself in the appropriate, befitting manner -back straight, chest out and taking long strides-, he walked down the street towards his destination.

The time frame: 45 minutes. The area of operation: the game store. The target: The brand-new, today released and super awesome videogame. Yes, he was talking about the brand new *******!

... Or so was his plan if not for the car flying straight at his head the very moment he crossed the next crosswalk. As if in slow-motion he watched it coming nearer and nearer without stopping his walk. The next thing everyone else saw after they thought this boy is dead due to car in the face was, that said car was seemingly levitating in the air, completely stopped in its tracks. The front looked as if it crashed into an immovable wall.

Without a care in the world he simply continued on his way but got stopped by an girl smaller than him whose hair was in pigtails. The girl, showing him her arm band signalizing her as an Judgment member, gave off the one sentence that seems to be such a trend in Judgment.

"Stop! I'm from Judgment!"

Seriously, one may think they only apply there so that they were able to say this one single insignificant sentence. Basically the one and only reason Kureno disliked having to deal with an Judgment member on duty. But even if he didn't like it, he still upheld what his sister was so keen to uphold: Be polite until they openly offend you.

That of course didn't mean Kureno couldn't make it a little more amusing for himself. So he did the next thing he could do to achieve such: Letting the wreck of the car drop with a loud crash. The twitch of the girl and following strained smile were enough to make the whole hassle a little more pleasant for him.

"I have some questions for you. After all, you are a witness.", one could hear her tone becoming more and more stressed by the minute.

"Then shoot, miss officer.", Kureno tried, additionally to the unconsciously added slight sarcasm in his tone, to give his best disarming smile he could possible flash at someone, in which he didn't succeed: The smile that came out was rather crooked. Which also didn't serve him in scoring points with her. That was reflected even more than before through the girls even harder strained smile.

"First, I would like to have your name, please."

"Kurokami Kureno."

The girl did a double-take before gaffing slightly at him. Oh, did someone knew his sister? But if that was the truth, Kureno had a problem: He seriously shouldn't tease a friend of his sister too much. That was, of course, depending on the if this girl truly was a friend of hers.

'Didn't Kumiko-nee get a job as teacher at Tokiwadai? And isn't that the school uniform of the school in question?'

"I take it you know my sister, miss...?"

"Yeah... she is a teacher at my school, actually. And my name is Shirai Kuroko."

He was right. And the friendliness in the last part was as fake as her current demeanor.

"Okay then, Shirai-san... if that was all...", Kureno seriously needed to get going, no matter how much fun this whole thing could potentially provide; His future as video gamer was at stake here! But fate seemed to hate him; He couldn't explain it otherwise.

"Oh, Kureno-san, Kuroko; Fancy meeting you here.", a wild Misaka Mikoto appeared out of nowhere the very moment Kuroko opened her mouth to most likely deny him his way out. The chances that he could worm himself out became slimmer and slimmer by the minute. But interesting was it nevertheless: Misaka appeared to be more nervous than anything.

Damn, his curiosity has been awoken.

"Misaka-san, it's a pleasure. Forgive me for asking, but you appear slightly... off put."

A flinch was all Kureno needed to know that yes, there was something. Inwardly doing a victory dance and having totally forgotten about the video game he carefully planned his next steps.

"Oh, you think so?", Kuroko began to look over Misaka closely this time. And with closely, one meant of course in a closer than necessary proximity. Which Misaka did not really like, by the looks of it. The smaller girl even began to poke and prod with her hands in ways one would most probably not do so for finding out the state of health the other person was in; Probably the reason why suddenly one could smell ozone.

"Kuroko..."

"You are right, Kuokami-san; She does not seem like herself today.", but the little girl did either not notice or care about the literal brewing storm approaching. Instead of answering he took a big step back to watch the show unfold. Safety above else, was it not?

"Kuroko... you damn PERVERT!"

***ZAP***

Even though it was quite amusing to watch, he couldn't help but cringe at the spectacle: Some people were not really self preserving, were they? Besides, it was quite the light show.

Having dealt with the immediate 'threat' to her being, Misaka once again focused on the one inch smaller boy. Despite having literally fried another human being, she was actually quite nonchalant about it. All the while Kuroko laid twitching and a little charcoaled on the ground. The two still standing tried not to give her any attention.

"Could you tell me where your sister currently is? We were only told that she was on a temporary leave and got this weird substitute teacher...", Misaka shuddered physically. What kind of person would make such an impression? Or more importantly, pull such an reaction out of an Level 5?!

"She went to London. From what I know, she will be back in the next two or three days."

"Anything else?", Misaka asked him, seemingly trying to advert the attention away from London; News about the attack were after all in nearly all newsletters and on TV. Kureno, though he appreciated the thought, wasn't actually concerned about his sister; There was nothing a PMC, no matter how good equipped, could do to her. But nevertheless he took her try at diverting.

"Nope. She has shut herself away completely. I couldn't contact here even if I wanted to."

"For her, this is a little out of character, isn't it?", by now Kureno had already began walking towards his intended destination and, by the looks of it, the elder girl decided to tag along.

"Not really; She has a sixth or seventh sense or something; If a situation is to arise, she is sure to know. Besides: if, and that's a big if, something would happen she could be here in like what, 9 minutes? "

"True, true. Again, something that was proven multiple times, her ability is too convenient. It's just that... everyone in my class wants their teacher back and this weirdo out."

WHO WAS THE REPLACEMENT FOR HIS SISTER AS TEACHER THAT MANAGES TO GET SUCH A SENTENCE OUT OF MISAKA FREAKING MIKOTO?!

'I'm not sure if I want to know who exactly this teacher is, but at the same time I really want to...'

He stopped right there. Somehow he felt as if it was dangerous terrain he was about to enter with that line of thought. Choosing it was not worth the risk, Kureno decided to change the course this conversation had taken.

"Hey, I look on the positive site: My sister is popular as a teacher. That is a plus in my book."

"Considering the competition, no wonder she is."

Damn, it didn't work!

A small silence fell between them. It was actually a little pleasant: Not the kind of awkward silence, but the one you had when bathing in a good day. And it was a nice sunny day. But all things must come to an end and so Kureno broke it.

"And what is it, besides sending a car flying towards me, that makes you so fidgety today?"

"Ehm...", it seemed he had hit bull's-eye with at least one of them. And he seriously doubted she was the one sending the car flying, at least this time: a Lv5 should still be able to control the situation in a way that no one would come to harm. Not that he still wouldn't say that, if only for the reaction. Note that this also meant that it was something different, something that he needed to solve for his own curiosity. Like a puzzle...

And she began to blush! If that was no big sign that something was indeed bothering her on a personal level, Kureno didn't know what could be. Maybe this situation could provide more entertainment than he at first anticipated. So he decided to say the first plausible thing that came to mind.

"Does it happen to have something to do with Kamijou-san?"

The number 3 blushed a little more and averted her gaze, all the time muttering things like "No!" and "Why should I... a-about this idiot...". Inwardly he grinned; 'So even Misaka Mikoto has a uncertain site like that; Good to know.'

"Well, not that it really concerns me. But tell me, why are you tagging along in the first place?"

"I have read about another contest in one of the gaming halls. Sounded interesting."

'Your mask of nonchalance is as transparent as it gets. It takes no idiot to see that you are inwardly humming in anticipation.', Kureno sweat dropped, holding his thoughts for himself. Wasn't she interested in Gekota or something like that? Maybe some price of the contest was one of these Gekota merchandises?

"Would you be after a certain frog?"

"Y-Yeah!"

'Misaka is really flustered about this guilty pleasure of hers, isn't she?'

"Don't worry, it is completely fine. Everyone has things he or she likes that are supposedly not 'for one's age'."

He truly meant it; He, too, had things he didn't want others to know about. Though most likely out of different reasons than the Railgun.

They continued their walk like that, exchanging some trivial info and had a rather good time. At one point they walked past a park where many children were playing together. A little girl noticed him when she was sitting on a swing, smiling a thousand watt smile when she did.

"Magician-san!"

Both stopped and watched as almost every child stopped in their individual games and ran towards them. The few who didn't joined after around 5 seconds with wonder displayed on their face. It was Misaka's turn to look at the younger boy, who had a sheepish smile on his face, with a raised eyebrow.

"Magician?"

"Well, normally I have a lot of free time when others my age are at school. Because of that I often walk to this or other parks in the near vicinity and give the younger children there something fun to watch and/or to look forward to."

"I am somewhat envious that you don't need to go to school.", Misaka muttered while watching the younger Kurokami struggle to withstand the onslaught of exclamations coming from the little children.

"Hey, Hey, can you make a rose?", the same girl that shouted the exclamation earlier tucked at his pants, causing him to chuckle slightly. Patting here on the head and pushing her back lightly at the same time.

Making a pose Kureno began to make flourish hand motions. He continued to do so for 6 additional seconds before making an extravagant twist with his wrist and voilà, a rose was suddenly in his hand, causing the children to clap.

"Make a dinosaur next!"

"A sports car!"

"Could you please make a card trick?"

"Sorry, don't have cards on me.", he laid the rose onto the girls open palm before turning towards the boy who wanted the card trick with an apologizing expression on his face. Same boy began to pout at the answer.

"Or have I?", Kureno pressed his palms together before moving them away from each other. And in between them cards that weren't there before fanned out, making their way from his left hand towards his right where they made a orderly stack and brought a smile on the boy's face.

"Pick a card.", he fanned them out after mixing them, holding them in reach of the younger boy who promptly picked a card.

"Now remember which one it was and put it back into the stack."

After the boy did as he was told to Kureno shifted them and shifted them, at least ten times before he stopped and seemingly pulled a random card out of the stack of cards. he showed the boy the card.

"Is this your card?"

"Yes! Again!", glee was pouring down from said boy at this point and he even kinda vibrated where he stood in anticipation. Sadly this would need to wait; Kureno already had wasted too much time and in the moment the new game was of greater importance.

"I'm really sorry, but no can do. I still have some important things I need to do. But next time definitely, I promise.", Kureno apologized with an somewhat heavy heart. Anyone would have one when saying 'no' to little children.

A lot of them started protesting and pouting, but he needed to stay strong: Only 25 minutes remained; 25 minutes to go to the game store and buy the object of his greatest desire. There was no way, if you took the children's personas into consideration, that he had time for more tricks. So he decided to create a distraction.

Out of nowhere a pterosaur appeared and flew over the head of the kids, drawing in all the eyes in the current vicinity and causing cheers; The perfect chance for him to escape.

And he took it: No one noticed that he was away until he was around the next corner and the big reptile dissolved into orange particle. Though they began searching for him, they were unsuccessful; not a trace was left of Kurokami Kureno to be seen.

Or so he hoped.

* * *

All was quite in the game store besides the quite chattering in the background. But that was about to change: in the distance one could hear a faint rumbling: A rumbling that came nearer and nearer by the seconds until it was like a horde of Left for dead zombies running towards the store.

And the horde part was correct: During the children's search, many others who were playing in the other parks got wind from the return of the 'magician' as well as his escape. And so it ended with a literal army of little children searching for this person.

Thanks to their huge numbers they found him after a rather short search, somehow coordinating it. Like that, the chase has begun with more and more children joining the mob which was hunting the esper down.

It was truly a sight to behold: A boy, around 13, surfing on a levitating orange board with a frightened look on his face and behind him a wave of children up to the age of elementary school graders, running and gunning all the while laughing and screaming in joy.

'WHY DO THEY KEEP MULTIPLYING?!', Kureno screamed in his head, needing to concentrate on getting towards his destination as well as not getting caught. And boy, did he need to work hard for that. Running away from a group of elementary grade kids who were also espers is not something easy by any means. The only thing that made Kureno believe he still had even a little bit of luck was that Misaka wasn't there too to hunt him down too or else this whole thing would have been over so much more quickly.

'The girl from earlier is an Lv3! An Lv3! At the age of what? eight?'

An esper who can influence the friction coefficient, by the looks of it. An unfair ability in a chase. Definitely unfair! The girl in question was happily gliding over the ground in front of the crowd and seemed to have the time of her life by the looks of it, often failing to touch him only by a hairbreadth.

'You will pay. Oh, you will pay!'

All the while Kureno was doing the ridiculous action of plotting revenge against an eight year old elementary schooler, the store came nearer and nearer. Only a few meters left and he was free!

50 meters: The clerk watched the 'thing' coming closer and closer to his store. It caused him to become more and more concerned about his wellbeing, most of all because it was heading towards him like a flock of bulls.

35 meters: He moved, first slowly walking than sprinting, towards the shop entrance. Kureno got a bad feeling about this.

15 meters: the clerk had reached the entrance and looked at the mob, a hand already on the button that would lock the door. Kureno began to shake his head wildly to signal the clerk he should not do that.

5 meters: The clerk was still hesitating, which was something Kureno was grateful for. But then the clerks face just seemed to change: A face of determination. The decision has been made.

And he pressed it! He locked the door in the last possible moment, forcing Kureno to pull up if only to avoid crashing into the closed store entrance. Rushing up the building wall on his flying board, Kureno had a fit.

'What is wrong with him?!'

Right now he didn't care for the completely logical reason of the clerk to save his store from an onslaught of little kids. Oh no. Now was the happy go lucky mood and time of empathy over.

he had no more time left; The time window for the operation was closed. He has failed to get this damn videogame. Suddenly he didn't feel like doing anything for the whole day anymore.

Luckily for him, the little children were not able to follow him to the top of the building. Why he didn't think of that before, Kureno didn't know.

But he had already agreed to the meeting. So he took all of his will, a husk of what it has been previously, and maneuvered towards Joseph's with his head hanging low. The day couldn't get any worse at this point.

* * *

When he arrived at joseph's, Eko was already waiting, her shoulder long ice-blue hair stuck up to a bun: She had this weird hobby to change her hair style every day in the week. On Mondays, it was hanging down loosely, on Tuesdays she had it into a high ponytail, Wednesdays she would change it into a low pony tail, Thursdays were for her the time for a bun, Friday would be the day of short twin tails, on Saturday and Sunday braided into one or two short braids respectively.

Why she did it, he didn't know. Kureno also wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer: Eko was after all a person where the wrong question could turn out to be a bottomless pit filled with ridicule and smart-ass remarks.

Eko sat in an lazy manner in her chair, lots and lots of cleared glasses of what has most likely been filled with ice cream in front of her. Yeah, she had a complete and utter sweet tooth. He had once witnessed Eko eating around a pound of java chip chocolate cookies without a problem. She didn't even gain weight in the wrong places, causing a multitude of other girls to bombard her with envious, downright jealous stares; Not that she cared.

"You know, you look fantastic!", Eko's sarcastic greeting didn't wait and was slapped right into Kureno's face. But even though she already unloaded her first round, she didn't end there.

"And it's rude to let a lady wait, you know?!"

"You say lady but all I see is a bottomless glutton."

***PLOP***

Promptly a spoon was send into his face, hitting hard enough to leave a red mark on it. But Kureno didn't react; In the moment, he just didn't care. A fact Eko was becoming aware of.

Trying to be a good friend, she poked him into telling her why exactly he was in such a mood. Literally. Repeatedly. With a different spoon, her personal one; Yes, ladies and gentleman, Eko was a master of the completely useless 'eating two sundaes at the same time'-technique. And just for that, she always had a spoon on her person because here in this restaurant you wouldn't get two of them. Or 'for cases of emergency' as she would word it: What this cases of emergencies were where you would require a spoon of all things, Kureno didn't know.

So, giving in to the constant physical prodding and stabbing, he sat down in front of her and began to tell the tale of how exactly he ended up like that.

***Flashback***

Kureno was walking down the street, having finished half of the way, when he got spotted the first time by the little esper girl who literally emerged from an alley ten feet in front of him. Both froze where they stood and for a short while simply stared at each other. After what appeared to be an eternity, the girl's mouth opened and what could only be a shout of the same magnitude from an sirens emerged.

"I'VE FOUND THE MAGICIAN!"

That was the beginning of the chase. A long and bloody chase through half of Academy City, or at least it felt like that; How far exactly the hunt went, Kureno had no clue. He had lost track of time and distance.

The girl ran after him, he who vanished on top of an flying, orange glowing board in a trail of whirled up dust. Since she could not compete physically, she did the only thing for her possible: Decreasing the friction coefficient of the soles of her shoes when she was running after him downhill, she began gliding towards her target at an faster and faster becoming pace since she wasn't losing any momentum but was building it up instead.

All the while, Kureno tried his best to evade her since she was moving at a faster pace now. She would continue to close in and try to grab him, he would continue to dodge or roll out of the way if she did and the whole process would repeat itself.

But it didn't end here: When he looked back again after 2 minutes of running he saw 5 instead of the 1 previous pursuer. From this point on it became worse and worse: Each time he turned around more and more children were hunting him. First 5, then 10, followed by 20, hunted by 50, pursued by 80!

'SERIOUSLY, WHAT'S UP WITH THESE KIDS! IT'S A HORDE! IT'S A GODDAMN HORDE! IF I STOP NOW, I DIE! I WILL SERIOUSLY DIE!'

It got harder and harder from this point on; Seeing their ally using her ability actively to try to catch him, they decided to take that as an example and followed suit swiftly. It was not fun for Kureno, since stopping would lead inevitably, as mentioned above, to getting stomped over and he needed to dodge all kind of different things whilst somehow navigating towards his destination. Being thrown at him were for example lighter-sized fireballs, blobs of water, pebbles and even a rubbish bin was thrown at him at some point.

The whole scene was like out of a manga or anime.

***Flashback end***

Eko was laughing her ass off, slamming her hand repeatedly on the table. The glasses even lifted off for a short amount of time due to the impacts. It reached its climax when she fell from her chair and laid on the ground rolling and laughing.

Each second of hearing the laughter was like a stab right into his soul.

'Why does she need to gain so much entertainment from the suffering of others?', with this thought Kureno became an official hypocrite; He, too, had laughed his ass off on multiple occasions where someone suffered from misfortune, even when it happened to Eko. Sometimes fate is an asshole.

The laughter continued for another minute in which she found it considerably harder and harder to breathe.

"Are you done?", Kureno's face was at this point pressed against the table, his arms hanging limply down. Eko, trying to get her breath back and to stop her laughter, which she was failing in spectacular for another minute or so, fought herself upright and onto her chair. Her lilac eyes literally sparkled from the glee showed in them.

"Y-Ye-Yeah, now I'm done.", she wiped tears out of her eyes and looked with the biggest amount of mirth a human could possibly get at him. The teasing hasn't come to an end, oh no; It was just the beginning.

"You're really suffering from misfortune today aren't you? Your little event could even compete with Touma-kun's 'normalcy', wouldn't you agree?"

* * *

Touma, who was currently somewhere in Baggage City, felt... something. It remembered him of hope, but he didn't know why exactly he felt like that or even if it was hope at all; He wasn't in contact with it often enough to discern the feeling called hope completely. Just one thing Kamijou Touma knew for sure: It felt good.

* * *

Kureno simply had one response and one response only:

"Such Misfortune..."

"Stop it; You're stealing a trend mark of another person through saying that. That's not nice."

* * *

What was up with him Today? The felling was sharing it's place with another one now: This one felt as if a part of him, a part of Kaijou Touma was ripped out and left only emptiness to remain.

Was he slowly losing what made him special? Was he slowly losing what made him Kamijou Touma? What made him unique?

* * *

"And stop sulking already.", Eko said. Seeing that it had no effect she sighed before continuing with operation 'cheering Kureno up'.

"Seriously, stop. You are not so bad, something like that can happen to everyone; The place for 'unluckiest person of the world' is still reserved for Kamijou Touma."

* * *

All the hope Touma previously thought welling up inside of him got crushed; Like a heavy, gloomy thing that fell down on top of him, weighing and pushing him completely down, both mentally as well as physically, as well as destroying the hope with a loud crash and boom.

The only thing left for him was to shout into the sky.

"Such misfortune!"

* * *

"Let's just stop talking about it, okay?"

"As you wish, my master.", Eko did a mock bow whilst sitting, smirking right in his face.

This girl was, despite her nice appearance, a devious little bugger. Which fitted perfectly since she was so short: only being 148cm tall, she often made the impression of an 'innocent' girl. A grave mistake: Eko had besides her obvious troll-genes a vicious and sadistic streak, falling short of only the #1 or #2. Barely.

"If only; I could order you to stop running your mouth."

"Believe me; If that would be the case, I could and would find other ways to tease you.", she retorted, twirling her spoon around her fingers. It became so fast the spoon became a blur. And indeed, he believed her that; She was creative as well as quick-witted in the worst possible way.

"Yeah, yeah; I get it; Forever I will be the one losing the arguments between us.", Kureno admitted defeat, having at least cheered up by that whole trash talking. Being in a depression was not really on the top or even close to his 'top ten most favorite'-list. Not that he believed it was on anyone's 'top ten most favorite'-list either.

"Amen to that."

" But to important matters: What did you call me for?", Kureno asked the one question that haunted him since the call. There were a handful of scenarios he could think of, most of them not really rosy ones. This question made Eko sober up.

"We have a new situation; A new client, to be specific."

"Give me the specifics of the job."

"Bodyguard duty for an important esper, female; Ability is the usage of dark energy dubbed as 'dark channel' and an very important object to research. The esper's rating is Lv4, above average.", Eko read out loud from her PDA. I was one of those new and extremely costly ones you: basically a flick knife-sized pad that had an flexible, transparent display in it; To use it, you needed to pull both hard case-parts apart to roll out the display which would have then the size of an medium tablet display.

"That sounds... surprisingly normal: Why did you make such a fuss about it?", Kureno asked her, having raised an eye brow which showed his surprise as well as his disbelieve. That was a fairly normal job for them. So why did she sound overly serious about this job? Normally, it was him who was overly serious and she was the joking one.

"Because of the client: The one who wants to hire us is the Kihara family."

Silence; That was what surrounded them by the mentioning of their name; Kureno made it an principle never to take a job from a Kihara. They were, as his sister worded it so wonderfully, the 'scum of Academy City'.

They already turned down many, many job offers send by them, ranging from guarding an unethical facility to destroying a with the Kihara family competing lab. Of course, this group of mad scientists tried to hire them through different channels and under different names, but thanks to their notorious background checks of their clients, Kureno and co knew who exactly their client was; Never once they accepted these kinds of jobs.

"...Did you already ask the others?", Kureno finally broke the silence, a repressed but potent emotion beginning to show in his eyes; The orange of his eyes seemed to shine slightly in a threatening way.

"Jep. They wanted to let you decide, being the leader of our little group of misfits and all that.", Eko answered, all the while ordering an lemon ice tea. Even though she looked rather comfortable and relaxed, Kureno knew: She was anything but. Her right hand clenching the spoon showed that.

But there was one thing that stopped Kureno from downright declining: What will happen with this esper if she stayed with the Kihara family? Dissection, human experimentation, drugs, anything one could possible think of and more that could be linked to a mad scientist.

Sighing, he made the decision; They would take on this job, but with their own terms in it. If the family of mad scientists would accept these terms or not, it didn't matter; When push would came to shove, a change of the type of operation could and would take place.

Kureno stood up, pressing his hands against the tabletop. Eko watched him with a serious as well as curious face at first, but when she saw the slight smirk forming on the boy's face Eko couldn't help but grin back.

"Eko, call the others; Tell them that CASTLE has a new job."

* * *

**And this was a revelation most of you did not see coming, right? Right? I thought so!**

**With that we also start into the next arc, this time following the little brother. Now, for the "why" question some of you have, let's just say: You will see...**

**Now, to somehow make things more interesting for, well, mostly me, I have a little quiz for you: What exactly is Kurokami Kureno's ability? The person who can answer me this question correctly will get an imaginary cookie with an astonishing caloric value of zero! Looking forward to your guesses.**

**And it's kind of sad that I don't have anything else to say at this point besides hope for reviews and/or whatever else you want to write/publish/send or whatever the correct term would be.**

**With that, I'm out! Bye!**


	15. CASTLE Arc: Chapter 2

**I'm back! And now, finally: Here is the next chapter! What can I say about it? It was rather fun to write and contains a surprise. A surprise that will bring forth even more fun for me in future chapters(Seriously, it's gonna be awesome!).**

**'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**

**Guest: First of all, thanks for the review! Now, dark energy is actually a scientific term. Just look it up or something along those lines! And no, the esper in question is not a gemstone.**

**RPGFanatic: Again, thanks for the review beforehand! I'm happy that you liked the change to the little brother. Regarding Eko knowing Touma, she actually had her pseudo début in the very first chapter(But since it was such a long time between the last and the first chapter I kind of expected that question). She was the person on the phone and yes, the other members do indeed know of Touma. Now to the Kihara family: I actually have OCs since I needed the Kihara to have my personal touch in order to make the story really work.**

**With that my section ends and all that is left is: Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: 'I do not own To Aru Majutsu no Index', only my OCs!'_

* * *

_Chapter 14_

A boy was sitting in a Julian restaurant. There was absolutely nothing unusual about something like that. This particular young man was currently working onsomething that most of his age group were accustomed to: homework. Lots of it. Two huge stakes were piled up in front of him which were causing the others customers wonder: How did this particular boy manage to pile up this much homework?

The question was easy, though no one knew the answer: Fact was that this boy, who carried the name of Omura Ryutaro, had somehow managed to pile up two months' worth of homework. And considering that he was a student attending Nagatenjouki, which told us his uniform, this workload was, on top of being en masse, also rather difficult.

A sigh escaped the boys lips, followed by him ruffling his hair; Currently having to motivation, no spark and instead a husk of what had been said motivation, Ryutaro leaned back until the back of his head rested on top of his chair's backrest. Pushing up the glasses resting on his nose he rubbed his nose bridge, letting out another sigh.

How did he land here? He remembered clearly how his morning had been: I was awesome.

With a hop in his step he woke up, took an extremely nice feeling shower and ate a fulfilling breakfast. On his walk to school the birds were singing, the sun was shining and everything just seemed perfect. He should have known that this state wouldn't last.

"Oi, no slacking off!"

And this was the sole reason why he was even sitting in this restaurant, forced to do his homework; Letting his head fall frontwards, he locked eyes with his current bane, his golden eyes against her blue ones: A girl, around 16 years old and of average height and proportion. The only thing that was different about her was that gold-blonde hair of hers: The only thing that marked her as half-foreign.

"Please stop rushing me, sempai; This little kouhai of yours is not build for straining tasks like homework.", Ryutaro retorted and tried his best to look at her with puppy dog-eyes. It didn't work.

"It's your fault alone why you are even in this position, idiot. Stop complaining about it.", crossing her arms in front of her, his sempai's eyes were blazing with what could only be described as blood lust. Or at least, that was what he saw.

"How is it my fault?!",he asked in indignation and pushed up his glasses but the only answer Ryutaro got in response was the blankest stare humanly possible. She really had that one down to the A.

"Really? You mean, despite your completely irresponsible habit of playing video games all day long? Discarding homework or learning with this behavior of yours?"

"It's justified and you know it! As the veteran of gaming in our group, it's is my duty to be better in videogames than our boss! And trust me, that is a hard task! NO, what am I saying? It's a bone breaking one with my honor at stake! It's something someone like you could never understand!", during his speech which caused the other students in their vicinity who also were gamers to get swayed away, Ryutaro has stood up and was making a pose whilst standing on top of his chair. Lone tears flowed down the cheeks.

"You're right, I can't understand it! How can someone as intelligent as you waste his time with something as mundane as this?!", now standing up too, the girl slammed her hands on the table with a loud crack.

"Mundane? Mundane?! HOW DARE YOU SAYING THAT GAMING IS MUNDANE?! APOLOGIZE TO EVERY GAMER OF THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!", an accusing finger was pointed at her. Both didn't even realize that at this point they were watched by the entire establishment staff plus customers.

"NO, I will not! As a representative of the hard workers of this world, I, Seki Chisuzu, cannot oversee this lack of putting in effort!", the girl exclaimed with a conviction similar to the one a certain unfortunate boy had when faced with certain situations.

They had this argument many times before; And like every time before, it ended with both giving the other the evil eye. Well, until their stare down was interrupted by a third party.

"Ano,..."

Both turned their heads to the source who turned out to be a waitress. She tried to give them a apologetic smile, but what came out was actually a little terrifying. Or more than a little. It appeared as if this specific waitress had a rather hard day of work behind her and was nearly at the point of exploding, only being hold back by the fact that she was currently working.

"Could you two please stop causing such a commotion? You are disturbing the other costumers."

And this by no means definitely, absolutely and totally not threatening sentence had an both, Chisuzu and Ryotaro be intimated by her. In fact, they were so intimidated that they sat down immediately and nodded repeatedly, sweat pouring down their faces.

"Thank you for your understanding.", and with this sentence she walked away. Both watched her until she disappeared through the kitchen door before they dared to resume their conversation.

"Now that the appearance of the scary waitress is over, let's continue shall we?", Ryutaro said to his companion with false cheer, cold sweat still clinging to his face. Lifting up the pen in his right hand dramatically, spun it once, twice around his fingers and brought it down.

And with this pencil on paper he brought the paper justice; He fulfilled the right of the paper to be written on.

*SLAM*

That was the sound of Chizusu's forehead meeting the table plate.

"Why do you need to do a commentary like one of those only happening in anime?"

"... I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Jop.", she popped the 'p', lifting her head again and rewarded him with a flabbergasted stare. Chizusu couldn't explain herself why all this was happening to her. The only reaction she got was a sheepish smile. But even though they didn't cause a commotion anymore, and even though Ryutaro had finally began to do his part, the peace didn't last.

"Oi, what is a cute girl like yourself doing her all alone?", a rather rough sounding voice echoed over to their table. Ryutaro, who was in the middle of his working phase, didn't look up to see what this new commotion was all about.

"Would you like to hang out with us a little, huh?"

His companion was a different matter entirely: Turning her head towards the source, Chizusu watched as a group of teenagers, all male and looking like your stereotypical delinquents, surrounded a girl with chestnut brown hair wearing a Tokiwadai school uniform. Said girl looked rather annoyed by the group of males.

They had, apparently, no idea of what self-preservation meant; They were likely to be Lv0, Lv2 at most. The girl on the other hand was at least as Lv3 or she wouldn't wear this uniform. Should a fight between them occur, the reason being anger a 'no' would ignite in the group of male teenagers, no matter if they had the numerical advantage, the fight wouldn't be fair.

This same reasoning was also Ryutaro's answer to her question if they shouldn't help the girl. Huffing in sullenness, the blonde decided to take it into her own hands. Standing up and walking towards the group, she made herself ready to 'ask' them and, if they wouldn't listen, to unleash a verbal hell unto them. Unseen by anyone, she had grabbed a fork which she was holding out of sight.

"Hey, could I have some of your time please?", Chizusu said, while taping the nearest one lightly on the shoulder, in a placidly tone and with a serene smile on her face, trying her best to be nice to them. An act that was, considering her mood, something worthy of an Oscar.

"Oh, what have we here? ", the now official thug turned around and leered at her, his eyes wandering all over her. If this was an anime, a giant tick mark would have formed on her forehead right about now. But even though in the moment she wished for nothing more than to hammer this thug into the ground, she still tried to believe in humanity and gave him a chance.

"Could you please leave this girl alone? It is obvious that in the moment she does not wish to spend time with either of you."

The reaction she got for Chizusu trying to be civil about it shattered her believe in mankind. Seemingly pissed of the thug grabbed her collar and pulled slightly upwards.

"Huh?! What is with you, bitch?!", he shouted into her face, a little bit of spit even landing on her nose. The kiddy gloves were off! Grabbing his wrist she slammed the fork into his arm freeing her collar. Twisting on the spot and with it his arm she ducked and maneuvered underneath his arm, got behind him and kicked into the hollow of his knee, making the loudmouth fall on his knees.

All the while the stakes of work sheets in front of Ryutaro has been decreased down to 4, number falling steadily.

"You _really_ shouldn't have grabbed me.", Chizusu told the one she was holding down all the while wearing the same serene smile, pressing her left foot into his back. The thug could only groan in pain at this point. But She had one mistake in her calculation: The fact that the delinquents were actually in a group.

Now, normally she wouldn't have made that mistake. Normally Chizusu would have perfectly calculated how the enemies positioning would be and how to counter it. But this situation was a little different than before.

She was used to be the operator, the one giving tactical input from the distance. Now that she actually needed to use what she leaned in self-defense, she was so unused to being close to the targets that she overlooked it.

Another one grabbed her left wrist and she yelped in surprise. Opening her hand and pulling the blonde off his friend, he continued with twisting Chizusu's arm behind her back.

"You will pay for that, bitch!"

The Tokiwadai girl had apparently seen enough; jumping up she began to emit sparks and was ready to unleash a storm on any moments notice.

*STAB*

"AAHHHHHH", the thug let the blonde's arm go, instead holding his own hand previously grabbing Chizusu's arm. The whole population of the restaurant was looking astonished as a pencil of all things was sticking out of his hand, having penetrated both flesh and bone. It looked rather nasty.

"One really shouldn't resort to violence but in the last instance.", Ryutaro's voice echoed through the -besides the painful screaming- silent restaurant, walking up towards the group all the while pushing up his glasses with two fingers. They reflected the light in such a way that it was impossible to see his eyes.

"If you really want to continue, please; Be my guest. But I must warn you: I do not play nicely if you threaten my sempai."

During his little speech, something that, under normal circumstances, would make said sempai really flustered, the delinquent had pulled out the pencil. The tip of it had become a crystal, a diamante.

"What the?"

"Listen up now. Maybe you learn something.", Ryutaro began in a condescending tone which was most likely fake and only used to get some reaction out of them. Pulling out a sealed ampoule with his left hand, they noticed that some black powder was in it. The glasses wearing boy opened it and, as if driven by something invisible, it began to float out like water.

"This is carbon. It is the sixth most abundant element in the universe. But even though it is such a common thing, it definitely is one of the most interesting.", it began to form something akin to a small snake which curled itself around his left wrist.

"You see, the way you arrange these atoms drastically changes the overall attributes carbon has. Making a diamante is just one of them, which, as you probably now, is the hardest natural thing on this planet.", as if commanded by his words, the powder began to whirl around forming a little tornado. It compressed itself more and more, began to glow which increased in intensity until, finally, a perfectly shaped diamante was laying in his open palm.

But it didn't end here: The diamante began to split up, forming fingernail-sized shards which began to float midair around Ryutaro's head, turning lazily on their axis. During the commotion Chizusu has been able to sneak away, now standing beside him. She rubbed her arm and sent the dirtiest look towards the one who had previously held her.

"Now, after this little excurse, I repeat Chizusu-senpai's kind question again: Do you want to continue, or not?"

Now, the thugs were in a rather bad situation: Them against an esper who seemed to have a rather nasty ability. So they did the only thing possible: One of them took the Tokiwadai girl hostage. That was, judging by the happenings that unfolded afterwards, the stupidest action they could have taken.

"STOP, OR I WILL SERIOUSLY HURT THIS GIRL!"

***zap zap***

And again, sparks came off the girl in cascades. A clear sign that an electromaster is about to get really pissed. At the last moment, he did realize that what he was holding was basically an over-the-top buffed up human stun gun, but too late.

***ZAP***

He and his companions were fried, ironically in a restaurant, by no other than the 3# Lv5, Misaka Mikoto aka 'The Railgun'.

* * *

Misaka Mikoto was, at this point in time, not really in a good mood; she had lost her only source of information about Kumiko. And she still couldn't think of a reason why Kureno suddenly bailed out. It just didn't make sense to her.

But needing to accept it, she went into this restaurant since she was a little hungry after the whole tirade. But even though she was now here, Mikoto hadn't had time to rest; 10 minutes. That was the time frame it took for her to be pestered by a group of thugs.

But before she could politely 'ask' them to leave her alone, this teenage girl walked up to them to tell them off. From there on it escalated quickly, the end result being her taken hostage and the thugs ending up fried and twitching on the ground. It really didn't took long for Judgment to arrive on scene who immediately captured the delinquents.

But right now, she had an entirely different problem.

Said problem was currently standing in front of her whilst she was sitting seiza-style on the ground. To her left and right respectively were the other two, who had previously tried to help her, even though she really didn't need any help. They, too, were sitting in the same way on the ground.

And the person standing in front of them and was currently scolding the hell out of the three was no other than the stressed out waitress from before.

"TWO TIMES! You caused an commotion two times in a row! Who do you think you are, huh?", she rambled on and on, all the while walking up and down in front of them. Wild gesticulations as well as a face red from anger accompanied it, the first making the three wary of a possible strike in their direction.

"It's all your fault!", the blonde haired girl hissed at the only male out of the three, being careful not to raise her voice; To loud and, so she feared, the waitress would zero in on her.

"How is it my fault?!"

"If you would do your homework like a normal student would, we wouldn't be in this situation!", she answered in a tone that suggested that there would be repercussions. That in return lead to the boy making a sound of indignation.

"I have already told you that gaming is-"

"That's no reason not to do your homework! And don't you dare to argue with 'that it would take up too much of your time'; You could do the homework in ten minutes if you would do it the same day you receive it!"

"These ten minutes are fundamental!"

"No, they are not! How can you not see it?"

"Because it's your illusion; It's not matching with reality!"

"Says an esper who uses a personal reality!"

Misaka could only sweatdrop as the other two bickered over her head. Could they not read the mood? Why would they cause ANOTHER commotion right in front of the pissed off waitress?!

Suddenly the atmosphere shifted; it somehow became even colder. Moving her eyes slowly towards the waitress, Misaka could only gulp;

"Am I that uninteresting to listen to, mhm?", a sickly sweet smile greeted them and was it only her or was there something dark behind her?! Both shut up and instead eyed the waitress with newly enkindled fear.

But they were saved; The manager of the restaurant approached and tapped the waitress lightly on the shoulder before she could say anything more.

"Shoka-chan, couldn't you let them be with that? They are children, so it's just natural for them. Okay?", he said to the enraged female and making himself, at least out of the eyes of the three espers, look like a saint. All three thought similar thoughts in perfect sync which could be roughly translated into 'Thank you, savior!'.

"Haaaa... if you say so, manager, I suppose I could let them off this time.", she receded, but not without giving them a last look; A look that would, if it would be possible, kill them five times over.

"But if you cause a commotion again, there WILL be consequences. Did I make myself clear?", they could only nod at that hectically. A last sigh of annoyance, and she walked away. Taking the chance, all three bowed to the manager as a sign of gratitude before bolting out of the restaurant.

Ryutaro, realizing that he forgot his homework, came after twenty steps to an abrupt halt. He won't leave homework, something he had actually worked for, behind. Done work is only done when you get a result out of it. If there was no result, there was no meaning behind actually doing it.

Sighing in resignation and accepting his fate, the boy walked into the restaurant again, going straight to the stacks without making eye contact with the waitress now dubbed as Shoka.

He felt her eyes drilling themselves into his back nevertheless.

"I... uhm... I-I kinda forgot my work sheets so... I came back and... uhmm..."

"..."

"I-I should go."

After the difficult task that was the grabbing and lifting up all the stacks was done, he, once again, walked out of the store but this time slowly; Ryutaro didn't want to let them drop or fly away. Catching up to Chizusu he saw something he had many times before; Something that was just 'Chizusu' so to speak; She was talking to the brunette, trying to get her to agree with her point of view.

It appeared that Chizusu wasn't going down without a fight.

The brunette on the other hand had no real interest whatsoever, and tried to get the older girl of her case with indirect answers. It didn't really work. Noticing that he was again in her near vicinity, Chizusu whirled around and made an victory pose.

"HA, take that you sloth! She agrees with me! You are officially outnumbered! HAHAHAHAHA!"

"It's obvious that she doesn't want to get dragged into this argument! And she does not agree with you, the answers were obviously saying nothing! Nothing at all!"

"That's not for you to decide!"

"I DID NOT DECIDE IT!"

"DO NOT START YELLING AT ME, MISTER!", at this point they were in an staring contest with their foreheads pressed together, trying to let the other combust into flames with their sheer willpower. The Tokiwadai student could do nothing besides sweat dropping at their behavior.

"I think that is enough, okay?", she decided to intervene before this ruckus could grew even more out of proportion. What she didn't want to happen today was some kind of war happening in her near vicinity.

With both giving off a huff, they both turned away from each other, prompting a tired sigh from the Railgun. What did she do to deserve this? Deciding it wasn't worth to say on this line of conversation, Misaka asked the boy instead what the sheets in his hands were supposed to be.

"My now officially finished homework of two months.", was his answer, prompting both girls to look at him in astonishment.

"Two months?", Chizusu voiced out the question swirling through both girl's heads.

"Jep.", it appeared that this answer was by no means the correct one.

"TWO MONTHS? HOW, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, DID YOU MANAGE TO PILE UP HOMEWORK WORTH OF TWO MONTHS?!"

"Did you not listen to anything I have said?", the only thing he got in response was a murderous stare, intense enough to level a building. Letting out a totally manly yelp he navigated behind the Level five of the group, making said Level 5 suddenly aware that being in the glares line of fire was not a nice situation to find yourself in.

"And to think that you got permission to use Tree Diagram once...", Chizusu muttered under her breath and dropped her stare. At that Misaka perked up, both because the stare wasn't aimed in her direction anymore and because of the new bit of information.

"He had?"

"Yep. Though he didn't tell me for what he actually used it.", at that both girls turned with questioning eyes towards the lone boy who found himself getting unwanted attention. His eyes began to nervously jump from place to place, not once meeting Chizusu's.

"Well, I used Three Diagram to calculate... 42."

"...What?"

"You know, 42."

"..."

"Answer to everything, the universe and the meaning of life?"

"..."

"_The Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_? Never read the book or seen the movie before? Seriously?"

"...You used the one time opportunity of using Tree Diagram, something that 99% of the Academy city citizens could only dream of... for something like that?", her voice appeared to be the epitome of calmness. Nothing, really nothing besides complete and utter indifference. And it was this exact tone that send shivers down the boy's as well as Mikoto's spine.

"Y-Yes?!"

"... Run."

"Excuse me?", the green haired boy all but squeaked out, at this point completely and utterly and downright terrified. And that for a good reason.

"Run. And that fast. Because when I'm done with you..."

He didn't even wait for her to finish what she was saying; Deciding it would be the best decision to take his legs into his hands he was already 29 meters away before she finished her sentence.

"YOU WILL WISH YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN!", and with this battle cry the blonde girl was hot on his tracks, all the while screaming things after him that were definitely not meant for the ears of children.

Mikoto could only watch as the odd pair vanished behind the next building corner.

* * *

His sixth sense tickled. That, Kureno could say for sure.

That would mean one of two things were about to happen: Either something was completely wrong or something pretty amusing was approaching his position. Either way, something interesting was bound to happen.

Coming to a halt his current companion named Eko, in all her glory, stopped too before looking at him with something very akin to interest. She had seen it happen many times before: A little more than natural dilated pupils, the twitch in his left hand and of course the sudden stop.

Why exactly his eyes dilated, she didn't know. Well, Eko didn't even know for certain why he had such a 'intuition' in the first place. She and the duo of idiots had the theory saying that Kureno had a side effect from the one time treatment every esper received, something along the lines of precognition. But there was no real proof supporting this theory. In the end, it was something they couldn't really explain.

But in the moment Eko didn't care about it. What she did care for was the approaching situation, simply because it could prove to be very entertaining, no matter which way it went. Something funny or something bad with fighting involved, Eko would welcome both with open arms and an 'angelic' smile on her face.

And it didn't let her wait for long.

A first they and the other bystanders heard a cream. Not one of fear, not one of joy but one of rage. Like a animals primal rage it echoed through the street, informing all and everything of the fate bestowed upon a certain individual.

"RYUUUUTAAAAROOOOO!"

Both knew this voice very well. They also knew the kind of tone it possessed, something oh so familiar to them that it became a daily occurrence. The tone was just between 'I promise you a slow, painful death 'and 'THE WORLD IS GOING TO BURN, MOTHER*****'.

A sigh, signaling more amusement than anything else escaped Kureno's mouth before he turned around to the source of what sounded suspiciously like a war cry. Eko, mimicking his action, pulled out a choco bar and began to lazily rip off the wrapping.

'Might as well eat something while enjoying the show.', was her thought as she excitedly waited for it to come into her view. Taking one bite, Eko was finally able to spot something on the horizon or more like the furthest corner of the street.

Two figures approaching quickly at a breathtaking speed have been the first thing everybody could make out. One of them, the first to be precise, was holding onto something that suspiciously looked like a big stake of paper. The second was furiously swinging arms around, the rather... expressive language emitting from the person caused multiple adults to cover little children's ears.

"WAIT 'TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU; I WILL **** AND **** YOU BEFORE TAKING OUT YOUR GUTS AND **** YOU WITH THEM!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

All of this was oh so familiar to them, already having to deal with it for a good year.

"Sooo, what do you think happened that managed to make her this angry? The usual?", Eko asked her companion, having finished the bar and pulling out the next one. It was done so in such a nonchalant manner as if it was the most normal thing in the world that someone spits out such promises of doom and destruction in the middle of the road in broad daylight.

"Probably. I would say something along the lines of 'He did something stupid and/or completely ridiculous' in the past that went against her rule book and he blurted it out.", Kureno didn't know how close to the truth he was.

"But why do they always need to make such a fuss?"

"Sempai-Kouhai dynamic, maybe?", the raven haired boy made a mock thinking pose, ending the sentence with a overly dramatic sigh.

"Nah, I know some others in middle and high school who are also sempai and kouhai, and they still don't act like that.", she waved the idea off and, at the same time, stepped to the side just in time to not get run over by the scared boy running for his life.

Said boy came to a sudden stop, cowering behind the smaller and younger one who could only sigh in resignation.

"Protect me, boss!", Ryutaro pleaded to him, peaking over his shoulder at the older female who seemed to prepare herself to pounce. It looked like she considered a trampled over Kureno as nothing more than collateral damage.

"I advise you not to do so.", was Chizusu's answer to his plea, trying to get Kureno on her side. Why their routine included him now, Kureno wasn't aware of. Did he raise some kind of flag this morning or something?

"Do not listen to her, boss! She is pure evil and doing so would be the same as making a contract with a demon! And you know from _video games_ that making a contract with demons is never a good thing!"

Another sigh escaped the younger Kurokami's lips. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he focused an exaggerated stare at the older girl.

"Do tell me: Why do I, even though I'm only thirteen years old and, with that, the youngest of this group, need to be the one playing the adult?"

"Because you are awesome and benevolent and would never abandon a close comrade of yours to a she-demon, oh great and mighty boss!?", Ryutaro answered in Chizusu's stead, going even as far as slightly massaging Kureno's shoulders. By the word 'she-demon' something that could only described as 'dark ooze' formed itself around Chizusu and HAD HER EYES ALWAYS BEEN GLOWING RED AND IN SUCH A SINISTER WAY?!

"Chizusu", in the end Kureno decided to solve this problem without a possible bloodshed.

"Yes?"

"Stop it already, please."

"But taichou-", she tried to rebut but got stopped before she could bring forth any argument. In hindsight it was rather uncommon when one thought about it: She listened to someone who was three years younger than her and followed what he said with something akin to respect in her voice, no matter how winy said voice sounded.

"No but. We have a new job and no time to waste on little games like catch. And stop calling me taichou, already.", Kureno scolded her all the while slamming an elbow into Ryutaro's guts; His massaging of Kureno's shoulders got slowly on his nerves. The receiver of the attack held his stomach, wheezing a little from the loss of air.

"I expect you to pull yourself together. Both of you."

Both could only hang their heads down in shame; Getting scolded by him could even bring a Lv5 to avoid eye contact, or so they believed. Blinking they only realized now that they sat in front of him seiza-style. Kureno was satisfied with the result; He had tried to emulate his sister with the tone he used, to a great affect it seemed.

"Hai.", they dejectedly answered before only now realizing what he had said.

"So we accepted the job?"

"You didn't look at your phones, did you?", Eko was grinning at them like a Cheshire cat. It had a great resemblance with the one she gave her 'play things' at her good days. Cue for Kureno's eyes to narrow slightly.

"We may or may not have... tehe~", Ryutaro tried a cute expression with his left hand bonked against his head and his tongue sticking out. He didn't succeed; it just looked wrong. Another sigh coming from the youngest male in the group indicated how drained he actually was. Dealing with a duo like that was simply taxing.

"Let's just go and get it over with. I will explain on the way"

Taking the lead, Kureno began to walk in the direction leading towards their destination. Eko was the first to follow, having a hop in her step. Ryutaro and Chizusu followed suit after standing up with light hesitation, needing to sprint for a short distance to catch up.

"Uhm, could we go to my apartment first? You know, because of homework?"

A flat stare, a sigh and a somehow sinister gleaming smile were his answers(one could guess who gave what).

* * *

They had already waited for 15 minutes. 15 minutes and no one was in sight who could remotely be their client.

After the slight detour CASTLE had to take because of a certain individual sporting green hair, they had made haste to get to the meeting point in time. It turned out to be a abandoned warehouse in a even more abandoned block of the city.

Apparently the other party was not so keen to be punctual. To say that Kureno was not amused would be an understatement.

The others didn't share his mood.

Ryutaro was busy playing a game on his phone, his face near literally radiating from glee. Which game it was Kureno couldn't see due to the fact that he wasn't able to look at the screen from his position.

Chizusu was reading a book in silence. She always had a pouch attached to her belt which she used to store the book she was currently reading. The title was '101 ways to deal with idiots'. A title he could only sweatdrop at after reading it.

Eko, who was listening to some music, was sitting on a metal support near the ceiling with her legs dangling down. Swinging her legs and happily humming in time with the music, she obviously had, in the moment, no problem whatsoever.

All in all his team had made themselves comfortable. All besides him. This fact didn't sit right with him. Luckily, for whom was arguable, the sound of a truck came nearer ad nearer. This meant show time.

Ryutaro paused his game and stuck his handy back in his pocket, Chizusu marked the page and the book, was placed back into the pouch. The only one who didn't react was Eko. One could argue that she simply didn't hear it, but Kureno knew that it didn't matter; Her ability as well as the fact that she saw them stopping what they were doing indicated that she simply ignored it.

Kureno shot her a displeased look which she simply replied with a beatific smile and a two-finger-salute.

The truck stopped in their view right in front of the warehouse's entrance. The passenger immediately stepped out of the car and walked with a confident smirk on his face towards him.

'Brown hair, brown eyes, more on the lean site, average height. Holding himself in a confident way and eyes tell of an above average intelligence. Wearing a lab coat; Possibly a Kihara.', Kureno analyzed him on the spot. After a near unnoticeable delay he, too, walked towards the deliverer.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm here to deliver the package.", the man said in a overly friendly tone. CASTLE was on guard immediately; Never trust someone who was too friendly. This was, in their line of work, the number one rule.

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you.", Kureno replied with what could be considered the most faked smile in Academy City's history. And even though the older man could easily see through it, it didn't matter. The smile was just a nicety after all.

"And the... 'package'?", he needed all of his willpower not to spat the description into the opposing face. How can people say 'package' when talking about a human being? Kureno was disgusted by the idea. The other CASTLE members shared his opinion, not that either of them grimaced at it; Too much was at stake here.

"In the back of the truck. Please wait, I will get 'it'."

Four pairs of eyes watched him as he walked back to the track. Throwing a careful look at Eko, Kureno made sure that she wouldn't do anything stupid. By the looks of it, she had herself under control at the moment, having closed her eyes to shut out her surroundings.

'So that was the reason why she continued to listen to music.', he thought at the same time the deliverer opened the cargo bay door of the truck. He stepped into the truck. They heard a little scuffle coming from the inside before he stepped out again, holding a girl's wrist who he also pulled with him.

The girl... She was someone peculiar, alright: More on the lean, petite site, around 15 years old. But what stood out the most were her eyes and hair: Hair as white as snow and eyes comparable to a pair of rubies, together with a face that would make most girls die from jealousy. Kureno even heard Ryutaro behind him giving off a whistle before getting silenced by Chizusu.

Something all four immediately noticed was the wristband around her left wrist; An Esper Suppression Device, or short ESD. it was based on the same principle as Capacity down, just a lot more refined. The wavelength was sent directly through the targets body, making it the perfect method to contain an esper's ability. A plus was that it simulated something similar to an overload; The esper, though not able to use his or her ability, wouldn't feel the pain Capacity Down would have caused, just a slight lightheadedness. The disadvantage was that one needed to get close to the esper and attach it to his/her wrist before activating it, making it near unusable for capturing rogue esper.

Getting dragged towards them, she wore a constant frown on her face which was completely understandable and even admirable; Understandable because she was, no matter how one tried to paraphrase it, a prisoner and a future lab rat. Admirable because a normal person wouldn't have this kind of self controlled aura around them in this kind of situation.

Kureno smoothed out his facial expression, making it impossible for anyone to read him. That was going to be the hardest part.

When the deliver stood before him he pushed the girl forward. Immediately Kureno grabbed her wrist, holding her in place before looking the older male directly in the eyes. The answer he got was another smirk.

"Regarding the payment, it will be transferred to your account."

"Thank you very much. Was that all?"

"For the meantime, yes it was.", the deliverer ended the conversation as abruptly as it began, if you could call it that, before sending him a last smirk. Turning around he walked towards the truck but stopped midway. He turned his head 90 degrees to the right, looking at them with one eye.

"before I forget: Did you receive the instructions?", the Kihara asked.

"Yes, we did.", after the younger Kurokami said that, the deliverer walked further towards the truck, got in and drove off. Kureno couldn't help but blink in wonder and confusion; What the hell was that? It should have been a lot harder to get her and to get him to drive away. A mind game or something like that would have been the 'normal' occurrence. So why...?

The moment the track couldn't be heard anymore CASTLE visibly relaxed and turned towards the girl. Kureno also stored his previous line of thought in the back of his mind. It went like something along the lines of 'All had its time and place', didn't it?

'Now, what to do with her?'

Deciding it would be the best course of action, Kureno let her wrist go with an -for Eko - amusing result: The very moment he did so, the girl struck out and tried to slap him. But before her palm met the side of his face, he caught her by the wrist. Again, he had her wrist in a hold.

"Would you please be so kind and not try that again? Just now I actually wanted to stop guiding you but if you are a small child in need of holding hands in this big, bad city please, be my guest."

At that she was flustered, alright. On the bright side, she didn't try anything else after he let go for the second time.

"What is your name?", Eko asked, having finally decided to stop listening to music, after hoping of the support, somehow sailing slower than for a human usual towards the ground, and landing on said ground safely and softly. 20 meters wasn't really something a human should normally be able to jump down without any injury, but then again: It was Academy City.

At first, she didn't get an answer besides a poisonous stare but after sending the girl a encouraging smile she reluctantly complied.

"Yuriko. Suzushina Yuriko."

Kureno could only hope that not anyone would fall so easily for that smile: It would mean that whole planet would be doomed.

* * *

**BAM, surprise! Now, who of you would have thought that Suzushina Yuriko would make an appearance? No one, am I right? And if you don't know who that is than you have a direct order from your Asdor2000 truly: Search it! NOW!**

**But yeah, the next arc is going to be fun...**

**With that, hope for a review or something along those lines.**

**I'm out, Bye!**


	16. CASTLE Arc: Chapter 3

**It had been a long time and no, I'm not dead. What I have been doing, you ask? Wellll, I have drowned myself in drawing, video games(The entirety of Hyperdimension Neptunia and World of Warships to name a few) and have mostly written other stuff besides 'A certain luminescent light'. And with that I mean the first chapters for 3 other fanfics(I really am bad with this prioritizing-stuff...) which I still think aren't ready to be uploaded.**

**Now, additionally I have finally managed to find me some time to finish the 14th and 15th volume of 'New Testament' and boy oh boy, its freakin' AWESOME. The very idea of Kamisato, someone who is so similar to Touma and at the same time completely different is simply a great idea. And concerning the Kamisato faction: I don't know if I should find them hilarious or downright terrifying. The devotion they have...**

**But that wasn't the part of it all which I found the most engaging. The thing with Misaka Mikoto was simply delicious if you don't mind me saying. The way she was displayed, the stress and doubts building up over the entirety of the two volumes and then her finally being pushed over the edge and becoming just _slightly_ psychotic... It was just great. And now I realize what a bad person I actually am.**

**Moving along...**

**'Author answers or says something probably important'-section:**

**RPGFanatic: Oh, you have no idea(Kehehehehehehehe). Now, after my slight dip into the dark side I have to agree; The foreshadowing was subtle. In fact it was so subtle that I will never make the foreshadowing this subtle ever again. Maybe. Now, glad that you like CASTLE and let's be honest here: Saluting Ryutaro for his sheer level of homework-forgetfulness is normal for everyone who goes to school. That and doing a facepalm hard enough to crack your neck. Finally, glad you like the development.**

**Sargent Crash: Glad to have been back myself. I am happy that you like the chapter but I have to ask: What did you take when you have read the chapter and where can I get some? For research purposes only, of course. Now, I am a normal man and I am pretty sure that my ancestry does not include Godzilla or Cthulu as far as I know but glad to be appreciated.**

**Now, funnily enough I started writing this to improve my English skills. It's my second language and, quite frankly, I sucked at it. Hard. Another funny thing: I learned English by playing video games in English, reading books in English and watching movies in English. Writing in English had become the second step towards improving my language skills and because of that I would really appreciate it if you -and others- could give me concrete examples so I can improve myself. So, if you find weird wordings or stuff like that just point it out.**

**With that my section ends and all that is left is: Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: 'I do not own To Aru Majutsu no Index, only my OCs!'_

* * *

"You know, boss; I was actually quite ecstatic when you told me about your plan.", Ryutaro spoke into the room, eyeing the... the thing in front of him with barely concealed disdain. He did speak the truth: He had been quite happy when he was told what exactly their plan entailed. Now, after spending some time with that thing and after thorough rethinking, he wasn't quite so sure about it anymore.

"But thinking back now I believe that I have been too overhasty with that.", in return he received a look of equal, if not even more disdain from one of the other occupants of the room. Her red eyes sent him a piercing stare, as cold as the deepest winter could only be. A slight shiver wandered down his spine, but he didn't shudder; It would only be a sign of weakness. Something she would most definitely use to her advantage.

If you wonder, they were currently in the living room of the apartment CASTLE had rented just for their jobs, stuff like meetings and such. It was fairly medium sized, not quite small but also not a castle itself **(A/N: see what I did there?)**. It consisted out of five rooms. The living room took most of the space and was placed right in the middle with a big window on the farthest side of the room. Around that were the other rooms, two connected to the right and two to the left wall respectively: A storage room, a sleeping room, a rest room and the last contained the kitchen, which was mainly filled with sweets.

The question 'why sweets' was self-explanatory and didn't need to be answered at this point anymore.

The sitting arrangements, being two sofas for three persons each and two armchairs, were placed in a circle around a single glass table and currently housed four of the five current residents of this apartment. The fifth, who was a certain sadistic girl with a sweet tooth like no other, had disappeared three minutes ago in the kitchen. Most surely to get some kind of sweet treat.

"Play nice.", Kureno didn't even try to sound interested in one or the other, to occupied with the newest gaming magazine residing in his hands. He was also the one Ryutaro's current envy was aimed at: Kureno had one of the two armchairs for himself, the two without a doubt most comfortable pieces of furniture in this whole apartment. Now, Ryutaro would have simply seized the other one but there was one thing stopping him from doing so:

The other armchair was Eko's regular seat. No one who had even the smallest sense for self-preservation would voluntarily sit down there; Too costly, the penalty being a slow, painful death.

"But boss, she said that games are a waste of time. I cannot overlook this blasphemy!", the glasses wearing boy whined. He only got three flat stares in return. Well, two stares and a half-stare: Kureno had shifted too much of his attention towards the magazine to be able to do a full one.

"I say it again: play nice."

"HA, you got told off! And to top it off, another one is against your video game policy!", Chizusu, who was seated right next to him, exclaimed in a near ecstasy-like state. Victory will be hers and nothing will stop that!

"Soon, your reign of terror will cease to exist!", this remark was one she should not have made. It ignited a fire in these golden eyes of his unlike any other. He sprung up and took a deep breath.

"Reign of terror? REIGN OF TERROR?! Obviously you try to change facts with fiction! What I want is tolerance! We are a free country, a free nation! We are a proud people, we gamers: We accept others like they are, we form a community with a unity like no other, a community capable of greatness. Under our careful tending the seed of media has prospered and flourished to what it is today. No, we are not united under one will, forcefully: We stand as one, anyone is part of it out of their own free will! It is you people, who cling to old and outdated principles, making up all these lies to justify your actions against us. You twist the truth until it fits with your pitiful worldview, until you terrorize us, forcing your believes and ideologies onto us. Yes, you are the ones who reign with terror! You are the ones who suppress the inventive minds of the new generations! But no longer: Soon, the revolution will begin. And we, who are ready to take up the mantle of a newer and more fairer world, we will liberate anyone who is still brainwashed by your people and bring forth a better future!", during this speech everyone's jaw dropped.

With mouths and eyes wide open they looked incredulously at him, not being able to believe that he really did that. The speech could have just as well come straight out of the mouth of a lunatic. Even Kureno had completely forgotten his magazine in favor of gaping at him.

"...Is he an idiot?", Yuriko spoke up first, the look on her face still remaining. She seriously reevaluated the human race. How was a person like that possible?

"He can only be an idiot."

"More along the lines of highly intelligent nutcase, I'm afraid.", Chizusu answered, rubbing her temples and trying to convince herself that the whole incident was nothing but a dream.

She didn't succeed.

"Which is worse than him simply being an idiot, trust me. Sometimes it's just...", she shivered and rubbed her arms with her hands as if to fight off extreme coldness. Yuriko didn't want to know what the memory which caused this reaction contained.

"Do they not say that there is a fine line between intelligence and insanity?", Kureno asked into the room slowly managing to close his mouth.

"No, the saying is 'there is a fine line between genius and madness'. AND THAT IS BESIDES THE POINT! THAT WAS ALL YOU COULD HAVE SAID, GUYS?! SERIOUSLY?!", Ryutaro cried out in desperation.

"Well, you have wasted a perfectly good speech on something as stupid as that; You left us with no other choice.", Chizusu's explanation left him with his mouth wide open.

"Don't make me sound like some kind of typical comic relief character!"

"Like she said: You leave us no choice. And isn't that exactly what your function in our group is?", Kureno mockingly considered him in a thoughtful manner supporting his chin with his left hand, elbow on his knee. The green haired boy's head hang down in despair as well as bitter resignation. Why did nobody support him? He expected that at least Kureno would be on his side.

"How can you just reduce my existence to something like that?"

"Because you make it hard not to.", Eko spoke up, slouched down in her armchair which had been made her own through totally legal means, read threatening certain others with death via slow and gruesome methods, and nibbled on a sweet roll. Yuriko jumped in her skin eyeing the other girl with a shocked expression on her face. Where the hell had Eko come from?! From what Yuriko could tell she had appeared out of nowhere. How did she manage to do that?

The others didn't even seem fazed by her entrance, as if people appearing out of nowhere were a regular thing in life.

"How...?"

"Her ability.", Kureno didn't think he needed to say more. And that she was also great with infiltrating and knew where she could move without being seen was something Kureno left out of his 'explanation' to have some cards up his sleeve in the future. Just to be sure of their safety.

"That doesn't explain-", Yuriko began to retort, but stopped abruptly midsentence. She was swept into the groups pace slowly but surely; A group that was supposed to keep her save until the experiments began anew. Yuriko knew what they were trying: To give her a false sense of security, to make her drop her guard. But she won't let them succeed; Not as long as she had a say in that matter.

Eko eyed her over her half eaten sweet roll like a cat eyeing a new toy with a lazy smile that said that yes, she was planning to do exactly that and no, she couldn't possible hope to fight against it. With that message Yuriko felt something grew in her. Oh no, it wasn't fear or anything like that: It was complete and utter defiance.

_'I will show you!'_

"... and besides, she just said that to go on your nerves. She most likely never had a real chance to play videogames before.", but concentrating again on the still ongoing conservation Yuriko couldn't help but doubt her first opinion of them. They simply didn't make the cut with being the scientists' underlings. The group was just to... unique. Yuriko squashed that thought immediately: No. They could be nothing but. But even though she didn't want to, Yuriko found herself doubting their status as Kihara supporters.

Yuriko fingered the little object in her left pocket. No, she wouldn't trust them no matter what. They were definitely people who didn't care if others suffered because of the experiments the Kihara made them go through. Nothing else would explain why the lead scientist would want her to deliver this object to the leader of this group.

"And it's not very surprising, considering her situation."

"But why taking it out on games? THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO HER! THEY ARE INNOCENT!"

***GRUMBLE RUMBLE***

All eyes wandered towards Yuriko who tried to make herself as small as possible. Why did her stomach decide to make itself known now? Yes, she hadn't eaten since two days but why, why now out of all times? When there were four others in the same room, enemies to boot?

She couldn't help but blush and boy, was that a blush: Her pale complexion made the red stand out like Christmas decoration. Ryutaro wasn't able to stop himself from letting out a deep and long 'AWWWW'.

He began nodding to himself before announcing something no one would have thought, but could have very much predicted, would come.

"You have my permission to say whatever you want about gaming from now on, effective immediately!", he finished that announcement with a thumps up and a stupid grin adorning his face. In response Chisuzu's right palm slowly wandered towards her face.

"... I can't believe this guy."

"Go die in a hole."

"So disappointing.", Kureno finished the bombardment whilst standing up. He laid his magazine carefully and gently on the glass table as if it was made out of porcelain before he began walking towards the door.

Yuriko didn't know what was going on.

The other members of CASTLE took that as the signal to stand up too, Ryutaro and Chizusu all the while bantering with Eko throwing in a smart remark here and there, and all three of them began to follow him on his way to the door, leaving Yuriko sitting on the couch.

She still didn't know what was going on.

Only after all four had vanished through said door and left it open she managed a weak "What?". Her main thought processes were a mess. What the **** did just happen? Why were they leaving just like that? As if he had read her thoughts Kureno's head popped back through the door.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Where...?", the whole situation became more and more confusing by the minute.

"A family restaurant, obviously.", No, it was not obvious! The answer left her with more questions than answers!

"... Why?"

"You are hungry. And we are. Kind of. And since the only food we have here are the sweet kind which are not proper nourishment no matter how often a certain person is telling us otherwise...", a rather indignant sounding "hey" was coming muffled from outside the room through the open door, " ...as well as the fact that the only one who is currently here and is actually able to cook and not create an explosion and/or a horror show is me...", this time there were three outcries from outside the door, "... leaves normally no other than me to prepare something filling and, most importantly, edible. Now, I don't really want to cook right now and with that the last option would be to go out to eat something fulfilling the criteria food should fulfill, namely 'edible' and 'filling'. Still following me?"

Kureno only got a nod in response. Yuriko's brain wasn't able to something more elaborate in the moment.

"Then hop hop. You don't want to let the bear cup inside your stomach starve, do you?", the blush increased in intensity, something Kureno thought to be impossible. She began to literally glow. In his humble opinion it was one of the cutest sights he had ever seen in his admittedly short life.

The only and rather weak response she managed to get out was a "s-shut up, asshole!" before she jumped up and sprinted past him out the door. Shaking his head in amusement Kureno closed the door and locked it with a swipe of his keycard. One of, you could guess, four.

Finally, it was time.

CASTLE was officially on the job with its first important assignment: To search and destroy food.

Unbeknownst to all of them, a silhouette watched the group from the distance.

* * *

Kureno and Chizusu voted for Jakob's while Ryutaro wanted to go to a Julian Restaurant and Eko thought that a certain cake bakery was the perfect place to eat something filling. No one agreed with her.

Since CASTLE was a group of people who decided things pseudo democratic, they ended up sitting in the nearest Jakob's. Pseudo democratic because in the end Kureno had ultimately the last word which always made decision-making a contest of who could convince him more that his/her idea was the best course of action.

All four of them were currently looking through the menu with Eko complaining that there weren't enough sweet things, Ryutaro complaining that the foods quality here at Jakob's is lower than in a Julian Restaurant and Chizusu complaining about the other two complaining. Kureno didn't care either way and tried to decide if he should take the Barbeque Sandwich or Spaghetti Carbonara. Why he chose between the two of them and didn't think about picking more traditional food? Because he wanted something western for a change, damn it!

And Yuriko? She sat with a questioning look right between Eko and Kureno and sported a dazzled expression on her face. She was confused. Completely and utterly confused. She didn't know what the others thought what 'being a prisoner' meant, but sitting with her captors inside a family restaurant awaiting a merry meal was something Yuriko didn't think to be the normal definition. At all.

Outside of her own personal bubble made mainly out of confusion a vivid argument about the best food buyable started to be held. It was something along the lines of Ryutaro trying to make Chizusu understand that only the Curry was the right way to go whilst she had the opinion that omelet was a worthier pick.

But the biggest challenge was soon to come: Trying to get Eko to pick something to eat. Now, most would think that it wouldn't be such a big issue since most if not all restaurants had such a big menu that it was near statistically impossible not to find something for his/her taste. This rule applied even more so for restaurants in Academy City.

"What about pommes?", Kureno proposed diplomatically and hoped that he didn't need all the cognitive prowess he possessed as Lv4 in order to find something, anything, that would please Eko.

"Too salty.", she immediately deflected the idea, proving again that yes, it would be a long day for our favorite little brother and yes, it was going to be quite the challenge.

"mashed potatoes?"

"Too mushy."

"Fish?"

"Too fishy."

"Steak with Barbeque sauce?"

"Too spicy."

"Well then, how about -" "WOULD YOU TWO PLEASE SHUT UP?", Yuriko interrupted the two of them rather loudly, attracting stares from every corner of the restaurant. But at this point she didn't even care about that. Even the Sempai-Kouhai combo stopped dead in their argument to look at her with eyes filled with surprise.

"You two are so noisy! And please, for the love of all that is good and holy, pick something already!"

"... do they have creampuffs?"

"Aaaarrrrrgh!", Yuriko grabbed her head with both of her hands and was only short of slamming her forehead into the table. Repeatedly. Her impression from before turned out to be wrong: All four of them were painfully annoying in equal measure! And why did she need to be between these two?! This seating arrangement made ignoring them literally impossible, Yuriko being exposed fully and unprotected to the nerve-wreck-radiation both Kureno and Eko emitted.

"Eko, I think this is enough.", Kureno finally took pity on Yuriko. Why, you wondered? Because often he would be the one suffering from the idiocy that was bound to be born when Ryutaro and Chizusu were in a near enough vicinity to each other and sometimes made him want to jump out of a high building. They were like the mother and father of insanity.

'DAMN IT! I will not forget this picture anytime soon, will I?', he shuddered at the thought. Up till now, both were always at odds with each other. Kureno feared the day Ryutaro and Chizusu would actually work together. It would cost at least a building, maybe more. Worst-case scenario: The end of Academy City.

He couldn't help but see it with his inner eye: Academy City, laid in ruins, everywhere fire and explosions and in the middle of it all the duo, laughing manically whilst firing rocket launchers at the last remaining defenders to cheesy music. Kureno shuddered again. No, he was going to make sure that this day would never come. Never!

This train of thought caused him to frown: Could it be...? Could it possibly be...? Could it possibly be that he had to deal constantly with two ticking time bombs at the same time?! On the one hand he needed to restrain Ryutaro and Chizusu; On the other hand there was... Eko!

Kureno's eyes widened by a considerable margin. CASTLE has been in business for a little over one year. And the whole time he didn't really put much thought into the question of who exactly he was dealing with on a daily basis, being part of said group. But now, when he did think about it, Kureno noticed something which would, and that he could predict with a fairly high accuracy, only bring wrecked nerves and destruction with it: The group itself. Each one had already proved to be a dangerous thing on his/her own to deal with. All three put together on the other hand...

Kureno grabbed Yuriko's hands with his and locked eyes with her. A Fire of determination burned in them, like the eyes of a hero in the face of the final boss, ready to do anything in the face of destruction and ultimate evil in order to let the world see another day.

"We will survive this! we will manage this! Don't worry, I'm with you!"

Yuriko raised an eyebrow. She couldn't and wouldn't understand what he was saying: In her eyes, all four of them were equally dangerous and shouldn't be left without supervision. For the answer she gave him a look of distaste added to your typical 'rip ones hands out of the hold'. This in return caused a hurt look to wash over his face which was, in Yuriko's opinion, faked. Nobody noticed the sour look appearing on Eko's face but vanishing just as fast.

"I think I know what I want...", Eko said to Kureno over Yuriko's head, leading him to look at her with surprise as well as disbelieve. Just like that? He doubted that it would have been this easy. Some kind of problem was probably just waiting to jump in his way; he simply knew it. But even then, how she had worded it baffled him slightly, enough to make him ask.

"Something you 'think you want'? Eko, how can someone think that they have found something he or she likes?"

"If you're unsure about actually getting it but the idea itself is appealing to you; You never had a moment like that?"

"Actually, no; I was always pretty sure about the things I wanted. Quoting my sister: 'If you need to make a decision anyway, take the one your gut is telling you and stick with it'; Though where the gut-part comes from, no idea."

"At the beginning I thought that always quoting your sister made you kinda cute; But now it's slowly getting annoying.", Eko said it with a deadpan expression. Kureno could only turn his head away and let out a huff of the slightly emotional kind and... did his cheeks become a little red?!

"They are good quotes, so why not?"

"... Siscon.", Kureno's reaction was a rather magnificent spit take and this time there was definitely a blush!

_'Where the hell did this come from?!'_

But he didn't let himself be caught on the back foot and retorted almost immediately.

"That was uncalled for and couldn't be farther from the truth!"

No one said that the retort had to be a strong one.

"That's what they all say.", Eko gave him the best sardonic smile she had in her arsenal, both being fairly impressive for someone so young. Thankfully Kureno didn't have to reply since the waitress stepped up to their table and asked for their orders. If he had, no one could have guaranteed that the reply would had been something preserving his dignity.

Additionally to that the question of the waitress caused a miracle: Any and all fighting at the table stopped and instead everyone gave quietly, and most importantly, orderly their individual order. As you could probably guess from the content of the previous conversations and thoughts, it was curry for Ryutaro, omelet for Chizusu, and a Barbeque sandwich for Kureno. He also ordered for all five of them ice tea and for Yuriko Spaghetti Bolognese.

You wondered what our lovable midge- I mean normal-sized girl of a sadist chose in the end?

Pancakes...

Yeah, since they were from Kureno's point of view still better than sweets or cakes and he had no interest in dealing with it anymore whatsoever he held back whatever comment he had and didn't say anything. His sixth sense tingled again and instead of eating his next bite he glanced out of the window, something only Ryutaro noticed and followed his example.

Now only Unbeknownst to three of them a silhouette watched the group from the distance.

* * *

Gaming halls were something very common in Academy City; No one denied that fact. Since the population in Academy City was mostly made up out of students, it would be weirder if those facilities wouldn't be as abundant as they were.

A peaceful atmosphere filled this particular gaming hall with... well, with peace. In fact it was so peaceful that all the customers and employees could swear they heard birds chirping. Where said birds were? No one knew. The chirps were simply there, no matter how unscientific it seemed.

But this peace wasn't meant to last. Like a typhoon, like the wrath of mother nature given form an unstoppable force slammed the entrance door open. Immediately everyone paused in whatever they were doing on focused their gazes on the entrance. And they saw...

"GUESS WHO'S BACK!", Ryutaro screamed into the room with what could be considered the biggest grin ever seen.

What followed was like the calm before the storm. Everyone became completely silent and didn't move an inch. It was like someone had taken a picture, printed it out, enlarged it and then hung it down in the middle of the room.

The next thing which followed the silence was chaos. Screams erupted, people ran around like headless chickens, crashed into each over and pushed others who had no idea what happened to the ground. The employees hurried to the gaming machines to make sure they all worked correctly.

It was indeed a strange sight for the group who had accompanied the door-slam-open-culprit. But, as they were about to find out, it wouldn't be the strangest.

Yuriko could only gape, her jaw hitting the floor at far above terminal velocity whilst the rest of CASTLE facepalmed, both reactions for what transpired next:

Two rows of boys and girls alike lined up, formed a corridor and saluted all at once. The whole scene looked as if they were welcoming a general or some kind of important figure. There even was a red carpet which got somehow placed in-between of the rows. And at the very end of it someone in a suit, presumably the manager of the gaming hall, stood firmly with his feet shoulder wide apart and wearing a serious expression.

"WELCOME BACK, SHISHOU!", came the welcoming with glass-shaking intensity and volume.

"Glad to be!", Ryutaro gave a salute in return and marched past the line ups like a lord who, after a month of gruesome fighting, returned to his mansion. After he walked through the whole parade he vanished with the manager in tow in the crowd.

"Just wha-... how... why...?", Yuriko was unable to understand the happenings around her. Again. It was as if the moment she thought it could not get any more insane, something even more insane would happen. What was wrong with these people?!

"Trust me when I say this: No one who ever had the (dis)pleasure of meeting Ryutaro was able to understand him completely. No one.", Kureno patted her shoulder once before following the gamemaniac through the welcoming... whatever that was.

"Eko, Chizusu; Show Yuriko-san around. I get the game-brain. We meet up in 15 minutes at the shoot-em-up corner.", he waved at them over his shoulder and vanished, just like Ryutaro before, in the crowd.

Both turned towards Yuriko who just now had attempted to escape from this insanity. Like a deer caught in the headlight she froze the moment their eyes were on her . The smiles the other two girls had were not reassuring. At all.

The next thing Yuriko knew was her being dragged towards the racing games, all the while protesting loudly.

Finding Ryutaro wasn't hard; Kureno only needed to follow the 'trail of insanity' as he liked to call it. Wherever his glasses wearing friend went when inside a game center, he would always leave some sort of... unusual things behind in his path.

Really, it ranged from shell-shocked girls seemingly frozen in time over little boys who somehow had become extremely hyper -too hyper even for their age- to the probably most important and obvious clue that one Omura Ryutaro had been there just recently: Every game machine Kureno passed had a new high score with nearly double the points of the last one.

How exactly Ryutaro managed to achieve such scores in a time frame of maybe twenty seconds per gaming machine was beyond Kureno. Hell, it was likely that this phenomena was beyond even the greatest of minds Academy City had to offer.

After around two minutes of walking he found himself standing inside the heart of the game center. Here, the newest, untested and most innovative machines stood together inside some sort of separate area where only those with a premium membership were allowed to be.

Luckily for Kureno he had a premium membership. One of the upsides of being friends with Ryutaro.

Now, where was said friend?

His question was soon to be answered as Kureno spotted him playing a rather hard looking shooting game where he had to use a gun-formed controller to shoot enemies on the screen. Another controller for a second player was still in its holder.

The enemies in question were your typical zombies, but the sheer amount of them on screen made Kureno stop for a second. Ryutaro most likely played on some sort of self-made difficulty; Normally there wouldn't be that many zombies attacking at the same time.

And it held another shock ready: According to the in-game timer Ryutaro had only played for twenty seconds but his score had already reached ten thousand points and he had a 4x multiplier.

Kureno called hacks.

Ignoring it completely for his mental health's sake he walked up besides the older boy and took the second 'gun'. Immediately a second aiming circle sparked into life on the screen.

**[Player 2 joined the battle. Good luck!]**

Right after the message had popped up Kureno had already gunned down three zombies in short intervals. The thing he noticed the moment another six zombies pooped up and began running towards him was that these zombies were fast. Even more so then 'president devil' or 'theft for bed 2' fast.

'Which nutcase thinks up these names anyway?', Kureno briefly wondered as he gunned down the six zombies with the ease of an expert marksman. Slowly but surely he caught up with Ryutaro.

Ryutaro didn't like that and redoubled his efforts. As if by his command even bigger waves of zombies harassed them, helping him along with scoring points.

"There is one behind you!", Ryutaro shouted in warning while giving him a meaningful look. Kureno immediately responded with 'turning' around and shooting the offending zombie IN THE FACE.

... Maybe he should stop spending so much time with Ryutaro or he will become a second one. Now that was a scary thought.

"I know!"

"This game is really something, eh? Programmed it myself."

"It's definitely challenging."

"Did you _notice the other thing_ I built into the game?"

"You mean the fact that it's almost as if the game _is watching us_? Yeah, I noticed!", Kureno gritted out of his teeth as he blasted the head of a zombie off when it came too close for comfort.

"How do you _plan to beat it_ then? Before me, I mean?"

"Well, I will have to _come up with something_ very soon."

"Looking forward to see what _you come up with_!"

"Well, one thing at the time: Do you see _the truck there_?", Kureno asked him and pointed towards said truck displayed on the screen with his free hand. Ryutaro saw, liked it and grinned a feral grin.

This day was going to become glorious. He just knew it.

* * *

"I have you now! I have you now! I have you now!"

This mumbled chant was repeated over and over in one specific part of the game center as a battle the like never seen before raged across two screens. Side by side the competitors struggled for every little advantage they could get, every little time they could save to become the chosen, the winner, the victorious hero of this epic conflict.

"Dream on, little one."

Teeth crunched together, muscles tensed to the point of snapping and a slight film of sweat on their foreheads showed the utter concentration, the unbreakable wills which clashed and, of course, the pride which was on the line for both of them.

"YES! Now I'm the first! Eat my dust, slowpoke!"

A Crowd surrounded them, loudly cheering and yelling and whistling. The cheer intensity of the atmosphere filling the area brought out all which was good, all which was neutral and all which was bad at the same time.

The spirit of war wavered through the air like near tangible threads, encircling all and inviting insanity into their hearts. The flames of passion burned with the sheer heat of the sun's very core and incited a strength and unity never seen before. Truly, this was the moment of greatness.

And Yuriko wasn't able to understand anything. Anything at all.

Whilst she watched Eko and Chizusu competing in a motorbike racing game with each other Yuriko could not comprehend why both of them were in it with such vigor nor the reason behind the by now massive crowd still forming around them.

She didn't want to have anything to do with that. But it looked like it was so much fun...

'NONONONO! Bad thoughts!', Yuriko shook her head as if she could shake the thoughts themselves into oblivion and out of her head. That wasn't the time for such things!

But it looked so interesting...

"And... And... AND... VICTORY!"

The crowd exploded. Tears were shed. A triumphant Eko was carried by the crowd through the room whilst Chizusu had a slightly sour expression on her face but not for long: It cleared up soon and got replaced by a small smile. A good sportsman/sportswoman(?) by the looks of it.

And someone who apparently had an eye for picking up troubled expressions since she began to walk through the crowd towards Yuriko at a leisure pace. Eko followed her with a somewhat secret gaze from the corner of her eyes.

Chizusu stopped when she was standing right in front of Yuriko and continued to look at her with the same small smile. And there was something strange. Something the white haired girl could not understand: She didn't feel uneasy.

In the past scientists had always looked at her with smiles which were all so innocent but deep down were sinister and she started to be able to spot this facet. Yuriko had developed a certain kind of sense for these things over the years she was shipped from lab to lab.

"You want to try?", Chizusu asked her with a strange calm in her blue eyes. Her voice too was completely calm as if she was talking to a small animal she wanted to calm down.

And it worked. Even though the paranoid part of Yuriko's brain was frantically searching for the signs, the intent in this smile of hers she couldn't find it. Slowly but surely Yuriko found her defenses she had built up around her to fall apart. It was the time where she made a decision:

She was not going to trust them. She simply couldn't. But what she could and would do is to meet them halfway. At least a little. Just to see for herself if they are different from the others or not. Ignoring her own hesitance and one hand grabbing the thing in her pocket she took the first step.

"I want to try it."

And she did. After Chizusu had lead her to the machine she started to explain her the controls, which were pretty close to those of a real motorcycle. Not surprising since the 'controllers' were replicas of motorbikes.

After her explanation which turned out to be surprisingly good in Yuriko's humble opinion she started a race with the current champion: Eko, the destroyer (she herself chose this nickname and everyone else simply overlooked it instead of laughing at her cliché naming sense).

Yuriko lost. horribly.

No matter the fact that she learned driving a motorcycle in a matter of two minutes to the point where it would make a professional racer look bleak, Eko was simply too good for her: After the first round the distance between them didn't shrink anymore, but Eko was simply too far ahead for her to catch. And on the seconds race the distance became even longer for Eko decided she needed to put in extra effort.

But even though she lost the rounds, Yuriko sported a small smile.

* * *

Next up was a game of whack-the-mole. The perfect gaming to release the stress she had built up over her lifetime.

"Having fun?", Chizusu stood beside her, both watching Eko hammering down on the game with the soft hammer. Yuriko answered her with a soft hum. But there was one thing she had noticed. One thing she didn't understand.

"Why do you act like that?", she asked the older girl whilst throwing her a questioning glance. The blonde simply answered with a small smile.

"Act how, exactly?"

"Controlled, mature, calm. You're all those things now but before...", that only got a small laugh out of Chizusu which only served to confuse Yuriko more.

"It's Ryutaro.", when she didn't say more Yuriko motioned her to continue, which was exactly what she did after Eko had smashed a really offensive mole she didn't manage to get up till now harder than necessary.

"He pushes my buttons, to put it simply. The moment I have to deal with him all the emotions I have come just boiling up. Ever since I knew him, actually. And what you have seen is actually me having learned to control myself; After the first ten minutes of our first meeting he brought me to the point where I decked him on the nose."

Yuriko would have giggled if she wouldn't have had the pleasure of already knowing the person in question. Instead, she gave her a look of sympathy with a little pity as flavoring.

***Ding Ding Ding***

Both focused back on Eko and the gaming machine in front of her. She had finished the round and the score...

Yuriko outright grinned this time as she had achieved something she didn't really think she could: She managed to get a better score than Eko. The shorter girl wore a scowl on her face before her expression quickly changed to a grin of her own. Throwing the hammer onto the machine and skipping towards Yuriko said girl fought with her desire to flee from the grinning maniac and barely managed to stay in place, although with all her muscles tensed up.

Eko stopped right in front of her, the grin becoming a little wider and wider. Yuriko's breathing stopped, she readied herself to bolt away and...

The smaller girl gave her a hug. Shock and the to her now completely familiar feeling of confusion washed through her like a tidal wave. And they continued to stay there like that: The smaller one wrapping her arms around the taller one who stood there unsure what to do.

"Good job, I guess.", Eko told her with a voice so quiet that only she could hear it. Finally, her mind caught up with the situation and Yuriko decided to do something she had never done before: She motioned to return the hug.

"Hey, we're back."

The moment she heard Kureno's voice Yuriko immediately stopped what she was doing and forced herself away from Eko. Said girl didn't stop her but couldn't help herself to smirk at her reaction in her typical mocking way. It was basically saying 'what, you embarrassed?' which Yuriko decided to ignore.

The change in Chizusu's face was immediate: The smile vanished to be replaced by a neutral expression the moment her eyes met Ryutaro's. But not because it was Ryutaro, even though it might have played a small part in it. No, it was the look in his eyes.

Gone was the playfulness they previously held and replaced by an ice cold intelligence as if he was ready to wipe out anything standing between himself and his goal. It made Yuriko who had noticed it flinch back and Eko's grin diminished, if only for a little bit. It was the face of someone willing and ready to go to war.

In comparison to it Kureno's expression simply was a little harder than before, at least for someone who hadn't known him for a longer period of time. But Eko saw it: The fire burning inside of them. And at this point she knew that the final pieces had come together.

They were finally ready.

* * *

All five of them stood in front of the complex CASTLE was supposed to deliver its charge to. The complex in question consisted of a parking lot in front of a skyscraper, obviously the main building and beside it a smaller one formed like a stadium, but obviously smaller. All of that was surrounded by a wall with a gate.

All members of CASTLE wore different expressions: Eko's face showed obvious distaste, Ryutaro's and Chizusu's had a certain seriousness on them which they normally didn't. The only one who didn't show any emotions was the leader of the in the moment not so merry group.

And Yuriko? She couldn't stop fidgeting. She hadn't even noticed that they were heading in this complex's direction before it was too late. Had she been wrong to trust them, even for only a little bit?

"Well, no use standing around in front of it. Come on.", Kureno said with a small, near inaudible sigh and pushed Yuriko slightly on the shoulder to make her move. But she didn't. So he did something rather brutal looking: He pushed her a second time, but this time the push was hard enough to make her ending up sprawled on the pavement. Yuriko didn't move to get up.

Wasting no time he grabbed her right wrist and heaved her up with a surprising amount of strength. In fact, it was so much force that she flew into him and was now leaning on him, his mouth close to her right ear and her right arm covering his mouth, a fact she passed off as not intended.

"Listen up. I'm only going to be able to say it once.", Yuriko heard the soft mumble in her ear and had to fight to suppress her eyes widening due to the surprise. What the...

"No matter what happens inside, you have to trust me. It crucial. So do not make an unusual scene. Do you understand?", she could only answer with a soft 'mhm' to show that she did. During her initial confusion Kureno drew back from her and the next time he spoke he did it in a normal volume again.

"Great that you understand your position now. Let's go."

And group walked through the gate into the complex.

He had told her to trust him. What did he mean with that? Trust him with what? What was going on in this head of his?

Yuriko had to make a choice: Could she trust him and with that entrust him with her life? Or not? Either way, the future she perceived for her was bleak at best. It couldn't possibly change, right? Nonetheless, something told her she had to make a decision. Soon.

And, after taking one look at CASTLE, she did.

* * *

**That was it for this chapter.**

**And I really don't know what is up with me but every time Ryutaro is part of the scene I can't help myself but write something ridiculous. I mean, I gave him a silly and admittedly little insane personality but the extents to which some things with him goes... I can't control myself when it comes to him. These things just won't stop flowing out. But well, he makes it entertaining, at least in my eyes, which makes it a good thing.**

** And now a little treat ******I have prepared** as an apology for the long waiting time you had to endure. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Omake: An unwise decision and a wish for misfortune**

Kamijou Touma knew that he was hunted by misfortune wherever he went. A view which most people did not share with him for a reason he didn't know. Those bastards.

He lived his live with it up till now, he had accepted it up till now. But at this moment he wished for something different. Not luck, that was for sure: That was a mere dream for the normal high school boy. He simply wanted no misfortune, a state of neutrality if you will.

Currently he cowered here behind a broken down wall in the middle of the warzone called Tokyo hiding himself from an endlessly seeming barrage of magic strong enough to pulverize a human being into smithereens. Kamijou Touma was completely and absolutely pinned down like a protagonist of an action game.

This style of life could not have been normal for a high school student and he, Kamijou Touma, simply wanted a break from it all. Added to the fact that he had to get to Othinus quickly didn't help the stress he felt in the slightest and prompted him to consider his options to end this fast once more.

There was Misaka, the #3 Lv5 of Academy City using her ability to keep the wall they were hiding behind upright and standing, shifting more and more metal to and on it using magnetism. She was of no help with her hands already so full.

Then there was index, but even now she was redirecting magic away from them and back to its origin. What hit their wall was a tenth of what was launched at them and with Index struggling with her current task that was out of the question, too.

And he couldn't run out there by himself; Imagine Breaker could only be at one place at the time. It would have been suicide. So what options did he have?

A sudden stray thought crossed his mind. An idea so perfect that he had to grin like a maniac when it became more and more clear in his head what he had to do. It was so simple, really. Why didn't he notice this before?

The two girls with him only saw the grin and how Touma pulled his phone out of his pocket. Both were confused by his action and worried by the grin which was threatening to rip his face apart by now. But they couldn't speak up since they had to fully concentrate on their individual tasks.

Ferociously tipping away Touma made the call in a time most pro-mailers would grow green with envy for. Placing the speaker on his hear Touma prayed to every deity there was that the person in question would answer quickly, a person which would be the solution for all of their problems.

"Hello, Touma-san. What do you want? I'm a little busy.", the voice of his soon to be savior was the most wonderful sound he had ever heard in his life. He was so delighted by the fact that there was no immediate misfortune happening like his phone dying or an electrical storm interrupting the connection that he completely disregarded the information Kumiko gave him.

"You have no idea how nice it is to hear your voice right now. I need your help. Right now!", Touma screamed over the sound of battle currently waging across Tokyo. And for the first time he was happy about it; Surely Kumiko would understand the gravity of the situation simply by hearing the explosions and whatever.

"Sorry, but no can do. It may sounds like there is something like a fight on your end and I would love to help you and Tokyo if I had to guess where you are since its what the news do not stop talking about but I have my own priorities."

The grin disappeared from his face as quickly as It came to be and Touma saw the chance of ending the situation quickly fade away into the endless sea of despair.

"Priorities? WHAT PRIORITIES?! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE IMPORTANT IN THE MOMENT THAN TOKYO AND MY AND INDEX'S AND MISAKA-SAN'S LIFE?"

"dinner."

"...what?"

"My little brother will be back home in about... 5 minutes and I have to prepare dinner. But don't worry, I am sure you can handle whatever these aggressors throw at you."

'_This damn brocon!_', is what Touma thought at the moment but didn't dare to say out loud. There was something more pressing than his instinct to throw out a comment. He had to convince her to come and help.

After the event which was about to transpire next Touma would insist that he did what had to be done and nothing more. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing and only his desperation pressured him to go to such extreme lengths.

"Your brother actually has followed us to Tokyo. He wanted to help us.", Touma had absolutely no idea what made him say that or even why he thought that saying that was a good idea.

"...Come again?"

"Kureno-san was with us up till now."

"...what do you mean, 'up till now'?", holy shit she believed him?!

"He has been captured by the ring leader."

"WHAT?"

"She took away his innocence.", what the hell was he saying?!

"..."

"..."

"...She did what?", Kumiko's voice was colder than zero degrees Farad and could probably freeze the sun itself. In every other situation Touma might have stopped there and prostrated himself in front of her begging for Kumiko's forgiveness. But right now he wasn't able to control his mouth before he screamed the next sentence out loud, louder than he had to.

"I said that SHE, THE RING LEADER OF THE ATTACK, TOOK A LIKING TO YOUR LITTLE BROTHER AND MADE HIM HER OWN!"

Everything on the battlefield just stopped. The attacks and every effort to defend against them halted like a picture, a scene frozen in time as every single person looked at Touma with something akin to horror on their faces. Friends and foe alike couldn't, didn't want to believe that he said that just now and were stopped dead in their tracks like a flock of deer caught in the headlights. Hell, Touma couldn't believe that he said it himself.

And then it happened.

Something dark, purple and absolutely terrifying began to come out of the speaker of Touma's phone. He let it go on the spot but incidentally put it on speaker during the process. The entire battlefield watched as the phone slowly fell to the ground. The dark... thing had and was still oozing out of the boy's mobile phone and filled out the entire battlefield. By the time his phone had hit the ground the thing was already reaching up to everyone's knees.

And then Kumiko spoke. Her voice was completely calm. And this made it even more so terrifying.

"Stay where you are. I'll be there shortly.", and the line went dead. The battlefield had been so quiet that everyone could hear her words. Cold sweat rolled down Touma's back in waves, a condition he shared with everyone present. Their eyes were dilated in fear, their breathing was ragged. A red flash came flying towards the battlefield at a tremendous speed.

And Touma, for the first time in his life, regretted not having his damn misfortune.

* * *

**I somehow have the feeling that Touma and everyone present will be traumatized for life...**

**Well, that was it for this chapter. Hope to see reviews like always and a good day to you.**

**And with that:**

**I'm out, bye!**


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